Moonstruck: Uchiha Itachi Story
by Shinra'sCrazyTurk
Summary: I killed them. I killed everyone.” Gold eyes widened a fraction while taking in his bloodstained clothing. “Everyone…Itachi?” he hesitated. “Not Sasuke…” stepping into her apartment he whispered 'I'm joining the Akatsuki.' -rated for craziness-
1. Chapter 1: Heaven's a Lie

**Moonstruck: Uchiha Itachi Story**

**Disclaimer:** I really don't own anything….really….except Yae cuz I made her. So you can't have her!

**Moonstruck:** Mentally damaged, supposedly by the influence of the moon; crazed _(if you can't see why I chose this for the title… it makes me wonder how much you know about naruto.)_

**AN:** ok I decided that since I made a really small prologue I was going to throw it in before chapter one. Nice huh? (Oh and everyone thank my unofficial beta Lady Hiroko. I know her form when I lived in another state, cool huh?)

**Summary:** Itachi's life as a high school student dealing with boring classes, crazy classmates, evil plotting family members and a slightly warped mind. What could go wrong? Itachi centric. Rated for later chapters.

**Prologue: At the Beginning **

Two dark haired boys sat in front of their father who had been silent since their arrival. He stared at his sons with blank expression before speaking.

"You will both be going to public schools tomorrow. They are both excellent schools and I expect you to do well in them." Sasuke looked like he was going to protest but Itachi placed a hand on his arm.

"If I may ask, what is wrong with our current schooling?" Itachi stared into his fathers eyes and not for the first time he wished his father wasn't home.

"Nothing. However, since our business is expanding, we no longer have time to teach you everything. You both start tomorrow. You may leave now." With their father dismissal, the two boys left the room.

"I don't want to go to a normal school aniki…" Sasuke quietly complained while they walked away from the room. "I know, but try to make the best of it." Inwardly Itachi was weary. _'Just what are you planning father…?'_

**Chapter One: Heaven's a Lie**

The moment he stepped out of the car, the girls that had been watching gathered in groups of three or more and he could hear them gasp and coo at him. It was disgusting that he would have to deal with this day in and day out from now on. Brushing a strand of dark hair away from his equally dark eyes, he kept his gaze foreword. While walking toward the front doors of the school, most of the girls gawked but stayed away, except one.

She had very pale skin, from what he could see, and long black hair; there was so much eyeliner and eye shadow that she had the appearance of a raccoon. Her eyes were an unnatural piercing gold which he was sure they were contacts. She wore all black and one could not accurately say whether of not she was thin or heavy for her clothes were baggy.

"Yo! You must be new." she said with a toothy grin. Her four canines were sharp and gleamed brightly in the sunlight.

"What gave you that idea?" He wanted to finish this quickly and get to class.

"Because those skinny bitches only ever talk about their makeup and suddenly they are in a flock five minutes before class? Besides, I haven't seen you around before." He raised an eyebrow at that. Not only was she talking to him like she could care less that he was attractive, but it seemed that she hated the other girls in the school as well.

"Yeah I know I look weird, but if those bitches over there _(she points to where a brown haired girl stood with two blond friends and a quiet blue haired girl)_ saw what I looked like without all this _(she moves her hands around her face to emphasize her point)_ then they would try to convert me into 'bitchism' and I'm really fine on my own."

He felt his lips twitch upwards into a small smirk. "You're interesting." She laughed.

"No I'm 'Sakimotto Yae', let me see your schedule and I'll take you to your first class." He wordlessly handed over the thin strip of paper to her pale hands.

"Oh this is some poor luck you have, Orochimaru first period. I don't care if he is one of the Sannin. He's a fucking pervert. You better watch yourself around him since he like them pretty." She grabbed his arm and lead him into the building while the other girls looked on in horror when the self proclaimed 'dark one' walked away with the new hot guy.

The inside of the school was brightly lit and entirely too noisy at that hour of the day, or at least that's what Itachi thought. The walls were an off-white color and the floors were made of some sort of black tile. He didn't say anything while he was dragged down the hallway into the sixth door on the left; he made a mental note to remember where the classroom was.

"Here you are. Our first period." he looked at the girl or a moment before speaking.

"Our?" Nodding her head, she motioned for him to follow as she explained.

"Yup I'm here too; I know I don't look like ANBU material but don't judge me based on my looks. Anyway like I said, watch yourself in this class. If you're with me, he 'might' leave you alone seeing as he doesn't like me." They stopped in front of a rather large desk that was currently occupied by a silver haired man with glasses who had his hair tied back.

"Good morning Kabuto-san, I need you to pull out his schedule for the rest of the day." Kabuto looked up at Itachi; his eyes hidden behind the glossed look of the glasses as the light hit them.

"Uchiha Itachi" Kabuto looked momentarily surprised and looked from Yae to Itachi before getting to the task that was set.

"Here you are Uchiha-san, everything is explained on there but I'm sure that Sakimotto-san will tell you before you have to read it. You better take your seats. The lesson will begin soon." With what was an obviously fake smile, Kabuto waved them off and went back to whatever he was doing previously.

"You want to sit closest to the door but in the back or middle. Never the front." Deciding to follow her advice, he sat with her in the far back of the room. The desks were set up in rows with about fifteen desks in each row; there were six rows.

Konoha was a rather large high school. There was a whiteboard in the very front of the room behind what one would assume was the teachers desk. _(It was covered in stacks of neatly organized papers and correcting materials)_

"Can I see your full schedule?" Yae asked while taking the paper from his hands before he could really give a response. As she looked it over, he could hear her 'hmm' every once and awhile. He noted the way she would unconsciously pull down the sleeves of her black hoodie when they would start to ride up her arm; silently he wondered about that.

"Well it seems that we have a lot of classes together. You are lucky in that account since now you don't have to sit with the brown haired bitch and her friends once they decide to swarm you." Handing him back his paper, he noted small check marks next to the classes they had together.

They had first period with Sannin Orochimaru who taught ANBU physics. Third period with Umino Iruka who taught ANBU Mathematics. Fourth period which was double the length due to it being their lunch period; that was with Hatake Kakashi with ANBU literature. Sixth period with Maito Gai which was Phys Ed. And finally seventh period with Sannin Tsunade who taught ANBU biology.

The two periods he didn't have with Yae were second _(Mitarashi Anko for Economics, mixed class) _and Fifth _(Sanin Jiraiya for art, mixed class)_ Yae had the same classes but the time slots were switched, or so she had stated. Looking at the clock, Yea sighed and sank into her seat.

The students who where still lingering about the classroom were frightened when the door flung open and banged on the wall while a tall black haired man strode through. He had long hair and very pale skin that the purple suit he wore did little to hide.

"Everyone in your seats; turn to page 352 in the book and read the blue highlighted text silently while I take role!" Itachi spared a glance at Yae who was glaring at their teacher._ 'I wonder what he could have done to get her so irritated...?' _Itachi thought while opening his newly bought textbook.

He skimmed over the words and mentally sighed when he realized he already knew the material. Glancing at Yae again, he noted that she had yet to even open her book. She turned to look at him after sensing his gaze.

"I already know it too. He seems to think all of us are idiots." She smiled. "Yae Sakimotto" the bitterness in that voice filtered around the classroom making people shiver when her name was called.

"Yo!" she gave the Sanin a feral grin when he narrowed his eyes at her.

"The proper response would be 'here' or 'present'." He continued on with the other names while Yae flipped him off.

"Teme..." It was whispered so softly that Itachi had almost missed it.

"Itachi Uchiha...?" the Sanin's voice called out and he scanned the classroom like a child who had found a long lost toy; or perhaps a new toy. The yellow eyed stare landed on Itachi while he said

"Here." Those yellow eyes bore into him and he wondered if this was going to be the start of a problem filled year. Then the Sanin's gaze shifted next to him where Yae sat with her arms crossed looking at the Sannin with displeasure.

"At least he didn't ask you to stay after class yet. If he does, don't go into his office if possible." Nodding Itachi turned his attention to the board where Orochimaru was witting something.

He started speaking not long after the dry erase marker had been capped and placed on his desk_. 'I still don't see why I had to be sent to this school even if it is supposed to be really great. I already know all of this. I wonder how Sasuke is fairing...'_ A soft tapping sound brought him away from his thought and he looked over at Yae.

One of the fingers on her right hand was gently tapping the beat to something on the desk in an overly bored manner. Only then did Itachi notice that she had painted her nails black. Suddenly her hand stopped and went to hear ear that was hidden behind her long hair. Turning to him she smirked defiantly.

"I never listen to him when he lectures, here," she whispered and handed him her right ear phone. Blinking he supposed he might as well listen to whatever she had playing. With one ear unoccupied he could answer any questions if the occasion arose.

Placing the earphone on his ear, the instrumental on what could be called a rock song was heard. It wasn't the worst thing that could be playing. He was slightly surprised when the vocals came back; they were not in English but Japanese.

Itachi and his family had long ago lived in Japan but had moved to the states at the chance of a better life. They still practiced the old ways in his family and he sometimes wondered if they remembered they weren't in Japan anymore.

Itachi allowed himself to relax just a little while the song played his native language. Never once did he question his own rather odd behavior.

_'With her name, she has to be Japanese as well... Perhaps I will ask her sometime.'_

The two of them were silent for the rest of the class until the bell rang. Taking back her earphone and packing up her things, Yae turned to him. "Better leave before he spots you. I'll see you in third ok, have fun!" With an animated wave, Yae walked briskly out of the class and headed left out of the door.

Gathering his things, Itachi managed to leave the classroom without Orochimaru spotting him; he had a feeling that Yae wasn't lying when she said those things earlier. Looking at his schedule, he noted that he needed to go back towards the front door to get to his next period. It was only four doors back on the right so it wasn't very difficult to find.

The inside of the classroom was very cold and as he sat down at an empty table the bell rang. A purple haired woman burst into the room with a scowl on her face. She was wearing a low cut skirt with a fishnet shirt and unbuttoned lab coat. Walking over to her desk, she sat on it and crossed her legs allowing her high healed shoes to kick the desks in front of her.

_'What she is wearing can not possibly be allowed...'_

"Alright maggots, we are going to do the two worksheets I'm going to pass out and then if you have time left you can start on the homework I'm giving you tonight!" she yelled and a few of the front row student whimpered. Her ruby eyed gaze swiveled until it landed on him.

"So you're the new student Uchiha Itachi. Well welcome to ANBU economics." Just as she said that a strange boy with blue tinted skin and dark blue hair walked in.

"Hoshigaki why are you late?!" The tall boy shrugged his shoulders and took the only other available seat which happened to be the one next to Itachi. The blue haired boy had dark beady looking eyes and what appeared like fish gill tattoos on the sides of his face. Sitting down and placing his things on the elongated desk, the shark boy turned to Itachi.

"So you're new here. I'm Kisame Hoshigaki." He placed his hand out as if expecting it to be taken. The boys smile faltered slightly.

"Or not..." Taking his hand back the boy sighed.

"Uchiha Itachi." Those black eyes were back on him the second he said his name.

"An Uchiha huh? There sure are a lot of you guys." A hand slapped the table causing Kisame to flinch slightly.

"Why don't you stop talking and do you're work! You haven't handed in anything this week." Anko glared at the boy who appeared to ignore her. Leaving the two worksheets on the table, Itachi set out to do them. They were easy. Nothing really challenged him anymore making everything boring and chore like.

Kisame had tried to start a conversation a few times after that but Itachi concentrated on getting all of his work done instead. When the bell to third period rang, he had completed the worksheets as well as his homework and handed all of them in.

Getting to third in the allotted time would be tricky, with the packed hallways, and considering it was in another building entirely. The school was separated into eight different buildings. The four main ones for normal courses, the fifth one belonging entirely to Phys Ed, the sixth one was the cafeteria, the seventh one was for band and the eight was for all the different art classes that were offered at Konoha.

Turning the corner, he almost bumped into a brown haired girl who wore entirely too much makeup. She was one of the girls who had been staring at him when he had gotten out of the car that morning.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" Her face flushed in a matter of moments before her eyes got a rather predatorial look to them.

"Say, how about you let me make it up to you? You could sit with me during lunch- Hey! Don't walk away from me!" Rather than explaining that he held no interest in her and only wanted to get to class; he just walked away. Some of the other students in the hallway laughed at the girl while she growled angrily at the boy who had dared walk away from her.

Itachi walked into the classroom just before the bell rang and the teacher smiled at him warmly.

"Come over here and introduce yourself to the class. You're the new student I was told about." Motioning for Itachi to stand beside him in the front of the class, Iruka turned and addressed the class.

"Alright guys quiet down. We have a new student starting form today. Now why don't you tell us your name and something about yourself?" Iruka said while looking towards Itachi.

"My name is Uchiha Itachi. I like spending my free time with my younger brother." with the requirements filled Itachi looked at his teacher who nodded.

"Now where to put you...?" Iruka's eyes scanned the room looking for empty seats that were away from the girls or the troublemakers.

"Iruka-sensei, let him sit over here!" all eyes were on Yae who had her hand raised and was waving it slightly back and forth. Iruka looked shocked; Yae had not once spoken unless she absolutely had to.

"Itachi, do you know her?" Iruka asked. He nodded and made his way into the back of the room without saying anything else. With a sigh, Iruka fought a smile and began to tell his students about the days lesson.

"Aww, you like spending time with your brother!" Itachi mentally rolled his eyes while she smiled.

"Why do you address the teachers as though you are in a Japanese school?" The question left his mouth before he really had even thought about it. Laughing, Yae looked at him.

"I'm Japanese so I'm used to it. All of the teachers have long since gotten over me doing that, so if you started doing that it don't think it would bother them." Seeing Itachi's expression she continued.

"You really think I can't tell you are also Japanese? I'm in ANBU for a reason." Smirking, she smiled politely at Iruka who let them get away with talking for the time being. Sitting down beside Yae, Itachi placed his things on the floor and pulled out a notebook.

"If you know everything from Oro-sannin's class, you'll probably know everything in here too. Just make sure that if you aren't going to pay attention that it at least looks like you are. Iruka doesn't like people to slack off." Glancing at the board, she pretended to write down the information when she was actually completing the homework that was written on the board.

"So how was last period without me?" she asked while her head was down so Iruka wouldn't notice.

"Is Anko-san always like that?" Stifling a laugh, Yae nodded. "She is a friend of the principle's so as long as it's not too revealing she's allowed to wear it." Itachi could tell that she was far more amused then she let on.

"I met a blue skinned boy named Kisame. He is...annoying." Her head snapped up and she looked at him with an unidentifiable expression on her face.

"Really? I wonder what he wanted." Although he thought her reaction to him telling her about Kisame was more then a little odd he decided to ignore that for a while.

"So what else happened, I can tell there is more." her smile was back.

"A brunette nearly ran into me in the hallway, and then tried to get me to go to lunch with her. I was already walking towards class when she was yelling at me." Yea snorted but kept her face neutral when Iruka looked at them; he turned away when he found nothing out of the ordinary. Her shoulders began to shake with barely controlled laughter.

"This is great, almost no one ignores her!" Her voice was harsh for a whisper but was still low enough not to be heard.

"She is going to stalk you forever now that you did that! I hate to tell you, but your school year is starting to look very grim indeed." Biting her lip in amusement her fangs poked over the edges of her lips giving her a slightly animalistic appearance.

He actually sighed at that. _'I don't want things to become more complicated. My family is enough.'_ Raising an eyebrow, he looked at Yea who was currently poking him in the arm.

"Oh, good you decided to join me. You didn't look like you were enjoying your thought."

Looking down at her wrist, she pulled a black sleeve back and smirked happily at her watch.

"3...2...1..." she counted down until the bell rang for out 4th period. Itachi started to get up and gather his things when he felt a hand on his arm.

"There is no need to hurry even if his class in another building. Kakashi-sensei is always late." she emphasized the 'always' and he got the feeling that there were a lot of weird things in this school he didn't care to know about that he would end up knowing either way. That was one of them.

"We only really have him in class for about fifteen minutes before the bell rings for lunch. We have computers in that classroom too so if things ever got really boring we can use them. Oh and he reads Come Come Paradise all the time..." her voice trailed off as she walked slightly ahead of Itachi in the hallway.

They did end up having to walk to another building but since it was once of the main courses it wasn't too far away; they also missed the bell by five minutes and as Yae predicted the teacher wasn't even there. Neither was half the class.

"I told you he's always late, so no one comes in until halfway into class." Since this was a computer lab the room was set up differently. There were desks all along the outside of the room with only a small island of five desks in the middle. Yae sat down in the one second closest from the door while Itachi sat next to her.

_'Why am I even bothering with her. I am not normally this talkative.'_ Looking at her as a piece of black hair fell into her face he almost frowned.

_'There is just something about her that intrigues me. It could be because she does not act like one would expect her too...'_ He was poked in the arm a few more times before Yea stated that he was thinking 'too much' and should stop before he hurt himself.

That was new to him; usually he was told to always think. Think things through, think about your future, think about how it will affect the clan. Always think.

"What did I just tell you? Sheesh. I've know you only for a few hours and your already starting to ignore me. Thanks a lot." she pouted and crossed her arms.

"So... Tell me about your family. Or about something about yourself." She bounced in the chair like a little child while waiting for Itachi to speak seemingly over her previous issue already. "I am seventeen."

"Wow that was great! I was hoping for something better, like favorite soda. Least liked month...You like being secretive don't you?" she paused and looked toward the door as a man with gravity defying silver hair and a mask walked into the classroom. He was wearing a dark blue turtleneck with black dress slacks. He had the lower half of his face covered by a black mask and his left eye was bandaged.

"Ok. Since we are now into our 5th month of school..." he trailed off lazily while waiting for everyone to look at him.

"I want to introduce a new long term project that you will be doing." There were groans from various students about work before everything fell silent again.

"Every week you will be recording any weird dreams that you have from now until the end of the year, then you will write a paper on one of those dreams and what you think it means. Any questions?" He looked around his one grey eye roaming the room.

"Good. Now do whatever for the remaining time." After that he sat down and proceeded to take out his orange book of porn as some people had dubbed it.

"But I have too many weird dreams to keep track of!!" There was a soft clicking sound as Yae banged her head into the computers keyboard.

"Grape soda. August." Yae looked up from the keyboard and stared blankly at Itachi before a look of understanding crossed her featured.

"Cherry soda. September." She mimicked Itachi's monotone and laid her head back on the keyboard where she promptly inhaled dust and sneezed. Itachi held a slight look of amusement when Yae sneezed twice more before whining that the computer was evil. She poked the screen and yelped when she was shocked; holding her finger she glared at the innocent looking computer as the screensaver came on.

"Technology is evil. It's going to cause our downfall one day... I like cheese pizza and soba noodles." she added as an after thought.

"So we are continuing this interrogation? Fine. chicken tempura and rice balls." Frowning Yae looked into Itachi's eyes.

"It's not an interrogation. You don't have to answer if you really don't want too." Pulling out her CD player and headphones, she only placed her left one in.

"What's your little brothers name?" She closed her gold eyes and moved her head to the beat of a j-rock song.

"Sasuke." Opening her eyes, Itachi noted that for once they were completely void of all emotion.

"I don't have any siblings. I live alone." The bell rang and her eyes were back to normal; as normal as gold eyes could get.

"Come on we need to get to the cafeteria before everyone else or there won't be a place to sit at all." Itachi stumbled as he was forcefully pulled from his seat and dragged down the hall.

"Walk faster, I'm not joking. There really won't be any seats left." Deciding it was better to comply rather then get dragged around like a rag doll, Itachi walked faster.

Upon entering the cafeteria Itachi realized just how huge Konoha High really was. The entire building was the cafeteria, he had only expected a small portion of it was the actually cafeteria and the other parts would be broken up into smaller sections for things like an auditorium. He was obviously wrong.

"Do you have money with you?" Itachi shook his head.

"Do you have a lunch for today?" He shook his head again.

"Why did I decide to make friends with such a difficult person." Pulling him to the first open table Yae found, they sat down. _'Is that what we are becoming? Friends?'_ Yae had propped her bag up on the table and was currently fishing through its contents and grumbling that it needed to be organized.

"There it is! I thought it had run off for a minute there." Placing a large container on the table she pulled out two pairs of chopsticks and placed them on the lid; closing the bag she left it sitting on the table. Opening the lid Itachi could see all sorts of different foods sitting on a bed of rice.

"Stop staring at it and eat some. Why do you think I brought out two pairs of these?!" Yae waved the unopened chopsticks in his face before he grabbed them. Smirking she slid the meal in-between them.

"I'm surprised you're not fighting me on this. It's either because you're hungry and it looks good, or because you know that I'd win the argument." Shrugging, she picked up a piece of shrimp and popped it into her mouth.

"Or it's because you are used to your family ordering you around so you don't fight it too much. I wonder which of those is correct?" she smirked behind another piece of shrimp when his gaze fell on her.

"YOU!" a screech interrupted their impromptu glaring match and the brown haired girl from earlier was standing behind the other side of the table pointing at Yae.

"Yes?" Yae choose to look bored and took some rice from the container after Itachi had taken a piece of chicken.

"Why is he sitting with you! You of all people?! And sharing food no less!"

"You're just sore that he ignored you in the hallway earlier. Now be gone demon!" she flicked a half eaten piece of shrimp at the girl and laughed when she screamed.

"Get it off of me! Eww! Get it off, get it off!!" She was turning in a circle screaming loudly so that all the tables nearby heard her and we also laughing.

"Wow, I didn't actually think I'd get it in her shirt! Today must be my lucky day, or maybe you're my new lucky charm Itachi?!" Shaking her head she continued to eat.

_'If anything, this year will be entertaining.'_ Itachi thought while quietly watching the chaos around him_. 'And this is only day one.'_ After a few minutes everyone had gone back to the conversations at their own tables and had seemingly forgotten the outburst that Yae had caused.

"Should I bring lunch again tomorrow or are you going to bring your own?"

"I will have my own." Nodding, Yae placed her things back in her bag and threw away the chopsticks.

"Have fun next class. Jiraiya Sannin is a real pervert, he writes those books that Kakashi-sensei reads all the time. But he's kind of funny so you might enjoy the class as long as you don't comment on anyone's art. If you do, you'll know immediately what I'm talking about." Yea smirked knowing that whether or not he said anything he'd end up knowing about the slight war between the red head and his friend.

"Oh and watch out for exploding clay." The bell rang and she waved at him, and like usually left before he could reply.

_'How does she always know? She didn't even look at her watch.'_ Thankful that he hadn't needed to take anything out of the small bag he had, Itachi walked out of the cafeteria and headed towards the art building. Which was in a completely different direction and behind building five for whatever reason. He felt an angry gaze on him and noticed that the brown haired girl was following him.

_'She was right about the stalking.'_ Pretending that he didn't even notice she was there, he continued on to the Art building. It was the largest building the school had, even larger then the cafeteria. Konoha High was a well known Art school and catered to more then just the regular arts such as painting, clay works and photography_._

_(However, even though Konoha specialized in the arts it did not mean that it was solely devoted to them. Many other courses were offered outside of the Arts field and a lot of accomplished people had graduated from Konoha)_

The moment he entered the building, a rush of freezing cold air greeted Itachi. Looking at his schedule, he got the class number and had to go to the second floor and the third room on the left. Surprisingly, the second floor wasn't really crowded so it took only a few seconds to get to the room once he was up the stairs.

The inside of the room was painted in different colors. One wall was a blood red, and had what looked liked kabuki masks covering half of it with small silver plaques underneath. Another wall was orange and had shelving for clay sculptors; the wall next to it was a dark forest green with numerous paintings hanging.

The last wall was white and completely bare; a desk was situated in front of it with piles of paper and small orange books falling off of it.

"Oh so you're the new student! Welcome to my art class!" A white haired man had come up from around the desk and had a sketchpad in one hand and a pencil in the other.

"You don't talk much do you? Oh well. Sit wherever you like. There are no assigned seats here." The white haired man placed the sketchpad on his very disorganized desk and walked over to the door as the other students began to file in, after the bell. All the tables in the large classroom were round so Itachi chose one closer to the door.

A blond haired boy, from what he could tell, came and sat across from him at the other end of the table followed by a boy wearing an orange mask who ended up sitting next to Itachi.

"I'm Tobi. Tobi is a good boy." The boy named Tobi who wore the orange mask held out his hand. Itachi blinked and ignored him.

"Deidara-sempai, he is acting a little like Sasaori don't you think?" Tobi spoke to the blond haired boy who nodded then frowned.

"I thought I told you to stop calling me 'sempai'! What the hell does that even mean?! Do you just go looking for words on the internet and start saying them at random or what, un?" He wore his hair up in a ponytail with the left half of his face covered by hair. His nails were painted a light purple color and he was wearing a blue ring on his right index finger. There was some writing on the wring but from his position, Itachi couldn't quite make it out, not that he really tried to either.

"No because Tobi is a good boy, Deidara-sempai!" Deidara sighed heavily and pulled a wad of clay out of a bag he held by his side and started to play with it.

"What are you going to make today?" Tobi asked excitedly from his spot next to Itachi.

"Hmm. I don't know, maybe a bird, un." Tobi reached over the table and stole a small piece of Deidara's clay and began rolling it on the table making a long thin line.

"Alright class, since we have a new student I'm going to explain a few things." the white haired man who Itachi now knew was the teacher was sitting on his desk with a grin.

"You can do pretty much whatever you want in this class as long as it has to do with art, and that you keep in mind I have to grade it. Other then that, there are only small projects assigned once a week that must be turned in by Friday or they don't count. Ok everyone, get to work."

_'I guess I could work with clay.'_ he walked over to where a large bucket was with a sign over it that said 'clay' and grabbed a handful of clay and brought it back to the table.

"Oh Sasori won't be happy. Looks like someone else likes using clay." Tobi said while making his clay 'snake' attack a 'person' he had made or at least that's what he said; they ended up looking like a worm and a starfish but he at least tried.

"Sasori doesn't know what real art is, un!" Deidara smashed his clay into the table with a furious look in his eyes.

"Deidara-sempai and Sasori don't agree on what art is. Sasori says that art is everlasting and he likes to build puppets. Sempai on the other hand..." Tobi motioned towards Deidara who had made a small bird that suddenly blew up creating smoke all around him.

"Art is a bang, un!" There was a loud grumbling from behind Deidara and Tobi hid under the table.

"I said you can do whatever you want but I thought I told you last week not to blow things up in my classroom?" Deidara huffed and glared at the Sannin teacher.

"It was only a small explosion, and I didn't take out the wall this time so stop complaining, un." A vein twitched on the white haired mans face but he walked away after realizing he was being ignored.

_'So that would be why the wall over there is white and not covered with art things.'_

Itachi turned back to his mound of clay and began taking pieces off of it and setting them aside for future use. Taking the clay in his hands, he rolled it between his palms and began to mold it into a desired shape.

"What are you making?" Tobi asked after a while; he was sitting on the edge of his seat and leaning closer to Itachi to get a better look. Itachi remained silent and continued to work while he heard Tobi asking 'sempai' what he was making.

"Exploding spider, and I don't know what he's making now go back you your own seat, un."

"Weasel." Itachi said quietly but instantly regretted it as Tobi had practically leapt over the table at his voice.

"So you can talk! Tobi was beginning to think you didn't like him! Tobi is a good boy!" Itachi's left eyes twitched ever so slightly.

"You'll have to excuse Tobi. He's always been like that and none of us know why. So why a weasel, un." Inwardly his mouth wanted to twist into something akin to a frown but outwardly he did nothing.

"My name is Itachi, it means weasel." Deidara looked at him for a moment before breaking into a fit of giggles.

"W-weasel? That's funny!" Itachi's eyes twitched and Deidara noticed a rather dark feeling sweep across the table.

"Not that it's bad, but weasel? Kakashi is scarecrow. But at least he kind of looks like a scarecrow. I wonder why your parents name you that, un?" Deidara was waving his hands around trying to make his point and not get killed at the same time.

"Hn." sighing in relief Deidara sat back down on his chair even though he didn't remember standing.

"Ok brats it's almost time for the end of the _class (hear someone say 'oh thank god' in the background followed by laughs)_ so put all your materials away. Don't be late tomorrow were starting a new project that will span outside of this class as well. That's all." Jiraiya said while he looked through his sketchpad, not at all paying attention to his students.

When Deidara and Tobi got up to put there things away, Itachi followed just to find out where to put it. All the way on the opposite side of the room there was a small rack for 6 periods of art work. Placing his mostly formed weasel on the correct rack, Itachi went back over to his current table and grabbed his things and sat patiently waiting for the bell.

_'He should have a sink in here for us to wash our hands. I wonder if it was connected to the wall Deidara blew up?'_ With that last thought, it was finally time to leave; having checked his schedule beforehand he knew to go to building five.

Seeing as he already knew where building five was Itachi had no problem finding it; he even managed to avoid what he was beginning to think were his fan girls. He despaired at the thought of that unruly breed.

"Hey Itachi!" a familiar voice called out to him just as he was about to grab building five's door handle. Turning he was face to face with gold eyes.

"Yae." Smirking she backed up a step.

"Well shall we?" she motioned towards the door. Silently opening it and walking inside, he found that it was warm.

"Oh yea...I forgot to tell you. They don't have AC in this building which I think is the most possibly stupidest crap ever. A few people have passed out from over exertion and heat exhaustion already. And Gai-sensei is a little..." A loud boom echoed through the gymnasium and a green blur came running from the opposite end to stand by the door they had just walked through.

"HOW ARE MY YOUTHFUL STUDENTS TODAY!" A tall man in green spandex yelled as he struck some sort of embarrassing pose. His teeth shone brightly and his black bowl cut hair swayed.

"As un-youthful as ever sensei. And you told me to tell you when I found the 'new youthful spirit' that was entering school. This is Uchiha Itachi. Itachi this is Gai-sensei." Yae said it in monotone but Gai-sensei didn't seem to notice. _'She just directed his attention to me...'_

"THANK YOU YAE! NOW THAT WE HAVE THIS NEW ENERGY HERE OUR CLASS TIME WILL BE EVEN MORE SPACTACULAR! WELCOME ITACHI UCHIHA!" The green beast as Yae would later call him, made a move to hug the stoic Uchiha but before he could, Yae intervened.

"Oh look Sensei, Lee-san is here..." Gai looked up from his new student and saw his miniature self come running to stand next to him.

"YOSH! I MADE IT HERE IN 7.3 SECONDS. 2 SECONDS FASTER THEN MY RECORD!" While lee was getting congratulated by Gai-sensei, Yae grabbed Itachi's arm and dragged him away from the duo.

"Quick, before they notice we're gone!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"I knew I shouldn't have taught Lee to say 'sensei'…" Yae cringed and made them walk faster.

"If they ever try to approach you in the hallway, run! If you don't, I can't insure that you will keep your sanity. He already corrupted lee, but that was about two years ago. We have all learned from Lee-san's sacrifice." Nodding her head, she broke into a grin at Itachi's passive expression.

"Admit it, he's creepy." Itachi took back his arm now that they were far away from them.

"Hn." Yae raised an eyebrow.

"I see, never admit your fears. Very wise indeed." she said in a slightly mysterious voice before laughing. Once again Itachi wondered how he had attracted such a strange person.

"I'll show you the way to the locker rooms. We only have to dress out on Wednesday-Friday. Otherwise we do other activities up here. Downstairs they have a pool and a small tennis court. Honestly who put a tennis court underground?" There was a small stairwell that was just inside the doors of the building.

"If you go down those steps you will be in the locker rooms, there is a sign that separates the girls one from the boys so you better figure out which one to go to. People have a tendency to swap the signs..."

"Oh and as for Gai-sensei's earlier comment. I did partially go to you because he told me to 'find our new student and share the power of youth' or some crap like that; but only because we rarely get new students since it's hard to get accepted near the middle of the year. If you had turned out to be a bastard I would have given you hell. It's a good thing you interest me, ne?" She cocked her head to the side and gave a small smile.

"ALRIGHT MY STUDENTS WE ARE GOING TO PLAY DODGEBALL TODAY AND LIGHT THE FLAMES OF YOUTH!" Yae scoffed.

"Can't he just say things rather the yell. And why dodge ball! Why?!" Yae hung her head and whined softly in despair. Turning, she trudged ahead solemnly as though she were going to her death.

_'Perhaps this year will be different then my other schooling. Things are a little crazier here then one would expect for such an esteemed school.'_ Gai had all the students line up and then once Lee had counted how many there were the line was split in half and those were the two teams. Itachi was naturally on Yae's team seeing as they were the last two to get in line of the left side.

"Place your things over there with mine; it will be time to go to our next class before we can get to them again. Unless you want to keep it on?" Itachi wordlessly walked the five feet to the wall and placed his things beside Yae's.

"So are you any good at dodgeball?" Yae asked will barely constrained curiosity.

"I have never played it." Itachi answered her honestly.

"This will be good then. You can really work your reflexes in it! Just don't get hit by a ball or aim for anyone's head since it won't get them out of the game."

"NOW THAT EVERYONE IS READY, START!" Gai blew into a whistle and with that people began to throw balls at each other. Itachi noted that since both himself and Yae were in the back, they only had to dodge a random ball everyone and a while; it was rather boring.

After about five minutes a stray ball made its way into the back and Yae grabbed it. The grin on her face made Itachi rethink his earlier assessment of the game.

Yae took off towards the line that separated the two teams, weaving and dodging out of the way of stray balls. Stopping a foot form the line she drew back her arm and let the ball loose; it nailed an unsuspecting victim directly in the chest and they were flung backwards onto their ass.

The slightly gleeful look that graced Yae features was enough to make some of the other players back away from her.

Someone threw a ball at her and it hit her chest but she caught it causing them to curse and step off the playing field. Now that the other team wanted her gone she was more alert and used others a shield to get to the back, along with the stolen ball.

Tossing it to Itachi, he caught it effortlessly.

"Hey I just got two people out, it's your turn. And make sure they can't catch the ball or you will be the one out."

With a mental sigh, Itachi walked calmly out into the battlefield. He dodged balls thrown at him by mere inches and ignored the other players stares when he stopped only inches from the line. Picking his target, he let the ball loose and watched in slight amusement when they cried out as the ball struck their side.

He didn't bother to duck as a ball was thrown at him catching it instead and nailing another player with it. He walked calmly back to stand beside Yae.

"I looked cooler..." she grumbled. For the rest of the game they took turns in taking people out of the game neither of them having nor wanting to exert themselves in that warm gymnasium.

"It's time to go." Yae said just before the bell rang for seventh. Rolling her shoulders to relieve some build up tension, she quickly put the strap of her bag on her left shoulder; looking back at Itachi she noted that he was ready.

"We have to go to building one and get there by the bell. Tsunade-hime does not like people to be late, even new students." Itachi nodded and followed Yae as they weaved their way through the hordes of students milling around outside and in the buildings.

"We need to hurry we only have like 15 seconds before were late!" They raced up the flight of stairs and made it to the third door on the left just in time.

"Yatta!" Yae mumbled weakly. Walking only a few steps, Yae sat at the desk closest to the door and Itachi sat beside her. The desks were so close to each other that they were almost touching. The reason for this was that there were only a few desks in the front of the room while the lab tables cluttered the rest of the room along with supply tables and shelves. It was a biology classroom after all.

_(But not just that; since it was ANBU biology there was also human development lessons thrown into the mix as well.)_

"Well Yae, you seem to have actually gotten here on time today, good for you. Now I don't have to write you up and file all that paperwork." She fake smiled at Tsunade and turned to Itachi.

"I told you she doesn't like late people." Tsunade had long blond hair that was parted into two pieces at the base of her neck. She wore a white v-neck shirt with a light green jacket was thrown over it and tan colored pants. A lone student stumbled into the classroom after the bell and Tsunade gave him a withering look.

"One more time you're late and I'm writing you up." The silver haired boy's mouth dropped open and his fists clenched.

"It wasn't my fucking fault that a group of brain dead fuckers decided to block the fucking hallway!" he growled out.

"You have detention tomorrow for that." Stalking over to his desk the boy could be heard muttering things _like 'oh, for fucks sake'_ and _'those fuckers better not get in my way tomorrow or I'll fucking kill them'_ as he crossed the room.

"That's Hidan. He swears a lot and made up his own religion or cult called 'Jashanism' or something like that. I'd stay away from him." Yae said quietly. Itachi noted that when the boy had walked past he also had a red ring; but this time it was on his left index finger.

"Now that everyone is here, I want everyone to pair up and when that is done I want the names of those together." Tsunade had a slightly evil look on her face and it made Yae and Itachi suspicious of her. After a few moments everyone was done.

"I will start here and work my way to the other side of the room." She looked over at Yae and the boy next to her.

"I think you know who I'm working with." Yae said in irritation.

"Oh really, well enlighten me." Tsunade did, in fact, know who she was working with but it was so fun to torment her students.

"Uchiha Itachi. Or if you prefer, the new student." Murmurs went around the classroom at that confession and Yae rolled her eyes.

"So are you going to tell us why we are paired up?" Tsunade smiled and shook her head.

"Nope, you'll find out in a week or two." Continuing on to take the other groups down Yae let her head hit the desk.

"I have a bad feeling about this, just like if Tsunade ever won the lottery she would have a bad feeling..." She felt Itachi's dark gaze on her and continued.

"She's quite the gambler and never wins. The only time she ever wins is when bad things are going to happen. It's kind of ironic actually…"

"Alright now that all of that is out of the way, I will give you a clue as to what the project is. It has to do with an extra lesson. Other then that I'm not telling you anything other then the fact that it counts as 33 your final grade at the end of the year. But don't worry too much it's only a month long project, including the written portion." Most of the students groaned at the sound of written work.

"After that lesson you will be doing a section on diseases and viruses where you will have to research one and make a presentation board or a PowerPoint presentation. Other then that you guys can get to work since it's on the board."

"She does, at least, let us talk in class while we work, so long as we are working." Pulling out her book she looked at the lesson and sighed.

"I already did this lesson. I knew I shouldn't have gone ahead because I was bored. At least I can just get to the questions and be done with it. What about you Itachi?" She didn't bother looking at him since it wouldn't aid her in getting an answer from him.

"It's an easy lesson." Smirking, she grabbed a pen and began doing the vocabulary and ten questions. Finally finishing nearly ten minutes later, she put all of her things away and looked at the clock.

"Another twenty minutes and were free...until tomorrow..." Tsunade watched the interaction of her two students and was surprised by how much Yae was talking; and when both of them handed in their completed assignments far ahead of time. She supposed there was a first for everything. Leaning back in her chair, Yae glanced over at Itachi.

"So what do you do at home? Anything interesting?" she waited for a moment before giving up on the hope of him answering.

"Studying or clan duties." his voice was a soft monotone.

"That's it?" Her gold eyes fixed onto Itachi's form as he nodded.

"I work and sleep so I guess I don't do much either." She stayed quiet after that, seemingly to completely digest the information she had uncovered.

_'I don't have time to do anything else.'_

When the bell rang, everyone rushed to gather all of their things and head to the bus ramp or to their cars in the parking lots or some other destination. Yae quietly placed her bag on her shoulder before waving at Itachi.

"I'll see you tomorrow ok? Bye." With one last smile, she walked out of the classroom while Itachi was getting up. He walked calmly out of the classroom and headed down the stairs even though they were packed with students. Finally making his way out of the building, he headed toward the parent pick up spot where he had been dropped of earlier that day.

He was not expecting either of his parents to be there; his mother would most likely be with Sasuke and his father at work.

He didn't mind any of it in the slightest. After being picked up by his cousin and finally arriving home Itachi found himself being herded into the kitchen by his mother.

"Aniki!" A small black blur latched into his waist and he smiled at his brother.

"Ototo, did you have fun today?" Sasuke nodded his head franticly and pulled his brother over to sit next to him as their mother made them a snack since dinner would be much later on.

"How was your first day there?" Uchiha Mikoto asked both of her boys who sat at the table eating. Sasuke was the first one to speak up.

"It was really weird at first since everyone was staring at me and the girls wanted to do was hug me _(he makes a face at that)_ but it got better when I met this blond haired boy who has whisker like scars on his face. He's really cool and does pranks all the time!" Mikoto laughed quietly at Sasuke while looking to Itachi for his answer.

"It was fine." She frowned but didn't ask him for any more information. He hadn't always been like that, but as his skills and mind developed so did the growing quietness in him. If she wanted something to blame for that she might blame the clan but she would never dare to say as much.

"Aniki, will you play with me tonight?" Sasuke looked up expectantly at his older brother. Itachi was about to answer when Uchiha Fugaku walked into the room just then getting home from work.

"Itachi, I need to speak with you." Fugaku walked past the kitchen and into another room entirely not saying another word.

"Not today Ototo, perhaps tomorrow." He poked Sasuke in the forehead and smiled slightly when he pouted.

"But Aniki, you always say that..." Itachi's smile slowly dissipated.

_'I do say that all the time don't I...'_ Excusing himself from the kitchen, he walked into the room that he knew his father to be in. Sitting down in front of him he waited.

"I expect you to study more then you have been at home. You can't let your education slide just because of a sibling. Now how was your day there?" Fugaku looked at his son with dark piercing eyes.

"It was fine. There will be no problems there." Nodding, Fugaku turned away from his son.

"You may leave now." Itachi left without another word and went to his room. If he went out with Sasuke now, his father would know and that would not be advisable.

_'It's always like this. I don't even need to study I know everything already.' _

Sitting on his floor, Itachi closed his eyes and tried to block out the fact that he was still home and that his father wasn't at work.

-OWARI-

**-Quick AN 8/11/08-:** OK, my beta fixed a few lingering problems with this chapter so I reposted it, and don't worry chapter 2 is already written but needs to be finished by my beta and I'm working on chapter 3…very slowly…

**Author:** ok….I know I said I was going to start "red as embers" on my fictionpress account but… I really didn't mean to start this!! All I did was open a blank word document then the next thing I knew there was like half the chapter written… Anyway I have always wanted to read a story where Itachi was in high school and etc etc. I can't tell you anymore because it would ruin the surprise. But I'm sure if you look at the interaction between Itachi and his family you'll see what's to come… hehe.

I also plan on making long chapters like this (lets see if that actually works...) and I have a sequel or two I'm thinking of already seeing as i know how this fic will play out for the most part. Hehehe

**Itachi:** I'm going to kill them all…

**Author:** -gasp- no you are not!! -Covers Itachi's mouth-

**AN:** review please. Don't be like me when you read a fic and think its good/bad but fail to leave a review cuz you are lazy… I knew doing that was going to come back at bite me… o0))


	2. Chapter 2: The Looking Glass

**Disclaimer:** I really don't own them...Really...

**AN:** Yay! I finally got this chapter done and it took FOREVER! Ok only about a week but still, I swear it took longer then the first chapter...Not that I was working non-stop on this...It just really didn't want to be written and I am sadly unhappy with the way this chapter flows. But once more of the plot unfolds instead of this mindless school drama I'm sure everything will be fine. o0

**Summary:** Itachi's life as a high school student dealing with boring classes, crazy classmates, evil plotting family members and a slightly warped mind. What could go wrong? Itachi centric. Rated for later chapters.

**Chapter 2: The Looking Glass**

_"You may leave now." Itachi left without another word and went to his room. If he went out with Sasuke now his father would know and that would not be advisable. 'It's always like this. I don't even need to study. I know everything already.' Sitting on his floor Itachi closed his eyes and tried to block out the fact that he was still home and that his father wasn't at work._

Dark eyes opened and blinked away the sleep that still clung to them; sitting up he realized he was up well before he needed to be. Glancing at his alarm clock, it read 4:58 am. Sighing, he allowed himself to fall back onto the bed.

_'There is no sense going back to sleep now.'_ Rolling over on his side, Itachi's dark eyes stared on into the darkness of his room.

_'I wouldn't be awake at this time if I hadn't gone to bed so early.'_ his hand curled into a fist at the thought_. _

_'He is purposely keeping me from interacting with Sasuke, but why? How could that possibly benefit either of us?'_ Feeling the slight pull at the base of his eyes, he forced himself to push those thought to the back of his mind for the moment.

There was no need to give himself a headache that early in the morning. Instead he tried to think of what had awoken him so early.

_'That dream again...It's the third time I've had it.'_ The dream started off normal enough; he was walking to his house in the pouring rain with no form of protection other then his soaking clothes. Then just as the house comes into his sight the color of the dream distorts to that akin to a negative photo.

Time seems to speed up and he is in the house where the walls were covered in a dark substance. The dream begins to blur and swirl but he can make out the form of his little brother before the dream ends.

Finally getting out of the bed, Itachi turns the light on and digs around his bag until he finds a sheet of paper and a pen.

"At least the dream fills my homework requirement for ANBU literature." Sitting on the floor, he began writing down the dream while waiting for the right time to start preparing for school.

Yawning widely, she ignored the stares that were thrown her way. "Looks like the preppy chicks can't handle the fact that Itachi doesn't seem to like them." Looking down at her covered arms she winced. There were some things even Yae didn't want to remember. Slightly pulling back her sleeve, she looked at her watch.

"He should be here soon...Oh speak of the devil." She waved as she spotted a familiar head of dark hair.

"Itachi!" He looked at her but seemed a little more the distracted.

"Lets go, I have a feeling things will be more interesting on your second day." He 'hn'ed making Yae frown.

"And here I thought I had made some progress yesterday..." she grumbled quietly. Following him into the room, she noticed the lack of silver hair sitting at the extra desk.

"Kabuto-san isn't here, that's weird. Unless..." Yae nearly bumped into Itachi before she noticed he had stopped.

"Good morning Mr. Uchiha." a slithery voice to in front of Itachi stated. Yae stepped away from Itachi and let Orochimaru see her standing next to him. Orochimaru looked furious for a moment before settling on merely unhappy.

"Why are _you_ here so early in the morning Orochimaru?" Itachi had slipped away during their small confrontation and sat down in the back.

"That is none of your business Miss Sakimoto." Seeing as the student he had wanted to talk with was gone Orochimaru left Yae glaring daggers into his retreating form.

"Hebi teme!" she growled. She stopped herself from stomping all the way to her seat and settled for a clenched jaw. Settling herself beside Itachi, she took a deep breath.

"What happened between the two of you for you to be so volatile to each other?" Yae opened her mouth to say something but seemed to think better of it and instead just shook her head.

"Maybe someday I'll tell you." Yae was silent for the rest of class and her silence seemed so unnatural that it was almost making Itachi uncomfortable. Never before had Itachi regretted saying something to anyone unless it was to his mother or Sasuke, perhaps even his cousin Shisui. It gave Itachi a lot to think about including the reason why Orochimaru seemed to be fascinated with him from the moment he had arrived in this class.

He supposed that he was correct in following Yae's instructions to stay as far away from the elder of the three Sannin teachers. There was something odd about Orochimaru, something that had Yae had either noticed or experienced to make her react the way she did around him.

Opening the physics book and looking over the days work, he mindlessly completed it without even reading the material. It was child's play compared to the things he knew about physics already. He felt his teacher's gaze on him again and Itachi met that gaze with one of his own. The man seemed mildly surprised that he had been caught but was otherwise unaffected as he continued to eye his student.

Outwardly, Itachi appeared to be unbothered by the man's actions, but inwardly, he was more then a little uncomfortable_. _

_'I will have to watch myself around him.'_ With that thought, Itachi found himself once again wondering why exactly his father had wanted him to enroll in this school, and _only_ this school.

Orochimaru seemed to love the sound of his own voice for he talked throughout the entire class with barely a pause; all the while he would periodically watch Itachi. Itachi rested his head on his left hand and stared out the window while quietly watching the wind moved the leaves on the trees.

Seeing Yae move out of the corner of his eye, he gathered his things and prepared to leave the class. As usual, when the bell rang most of the students scrambled to get their things and leave.

Itachi knowing that Orochimaru would probably want to speak with him after class, he weaved in-between the other students and out the door before the man could even catch his eye. He walked calmly through the packed hallway not really seeing where he was going but still getting to his destination with time to spare.

The moment that Anko walked into the class her gaze had settled on Itachi. If that hadn't been weird enough she remained quiet and it seemed to freak the other students out.

"Ok. Today I want you to work on chapters 5-7 and homework is whatever you don't finish here." She sat in the chair at her desk and worked on some papers, perhaps grading them? The entire class was quiet yet it was filled with nervous tension. No one dared to look up or say anything for fear of Anko's wrath.

_'This truly is a strange school.'_ About five minutes after the late bell had rung; Kisame strode into class and expected to be yelled at by Anko. She looked at him and took a deep breath before going back to her paperwork. Kisame sat down with a frown.

"That's not normal for Anko. This class is going to suck." he moaned quietly. When Kisame's left hand landed on the table with a slight thud Itachi's eyes were drawn to the ring situated on his ring finger.

_'It's the same as the others, only its an orange color.'_ Itachi's mind turned over the information but seeing as he really had no other information, he couldn't even begin to decipher their significance. He could however make out the symbol on the ring, it read 'south'.

_'Things will never be dull here.'_

Yae had her head down on the desk and was quietly listening to her music. One of her arms was used as a pillow for her head and to hide her face while the other stretched the length of the table leaving her fingertips to slightly curl at the edge.

"I wonder how long I can keep avoiding his question before I have to tell him everything..." If that came anytime soon, she knew it, would create a lot of problems. Her eyes were closed and she tried to block everything else out but the eerie music slithering from the headphones.

Vaguely she registered the fact that something was poking her and it was getting increasingly annoying the more she tried to ignore it. Lifting her head she was met with a curious stare of her perverted art teacher.

"What do you want pervert-sensei?" The man scoffed at the name but seemed to forgive her this time.

"Just wondering why one of my best students is lazing around today. I would expect that from Nara, not you. So what's going on?" Shrugging a shoulder in response, she pulled out both headphones.

"I'm not allowed to have an off day?" Shaking his head in disbelief, he let her excuse slide, and for that Yae was grateful.

"Have you decided on what you will be doing for the mid-term?" At the mention of the project, Yae let her head fall back to the desk and she mumbled a soft 'no' to Jiraiya question.

"Oh? I'm surprised. Usually you have at least an idea..." Jiraiya grinned when her head shot up with a scowl in place.

"I do have an idea but I need to discuss it with my partner first..."

_'Only he doesn't' know he's my partner yet...'_ Realizing he had just pried information out of her she growled.

"You of all people decided to have a partner for this?" The white haired pervert looked startled and she flicked him off.

"You really are not in a good mood today are you? I'll leave you alone but I expect you to do at least something tomorrow, I don't care if your arm is falling off or not. Got it?" Nodding, she replaced her headphones and was intending to space out for the rest of class when a scarred boy sat in front of her.

"GO AWAY!" she growled out. The boy looked amused.

"Kakuzu, what do you want, really can't everyone leave me alone just for today?!" He laughed at her.

"I'm only sitting here, besides all of the other tables are noisy and this one isn't. A perfect place to sit to me." Glaring at the boy she pulled her hood over her face and hid her head in her arms.

"There are some days I wish I hadn't gotten out of bed." She could hear his laughter over her headphones and was sure that everyone was staring in their direction.

_'I hope I don't have to work tonight. I'm so tired from yesterday...I don't know if I can do that two days in a row and stay awake in school...'_ After that thought, she managed to zone out again for a few more minutes before soft vibrations rattled over the surface of the desk.

Peering over her arms, she came face to face with Kakuzu who was gently tapping on the desk with a black pen. Lifting her head in surprise, she managed not to hit him out of reflex.

Yanking out her earphones she grumbled a harsh "What?" Kakuzu only seemed amused.

"Just thought I'd tell you that the bell rang." She quickly pulled back her sleeve looking at her watch to see that Kakuzu was, in fact, right.

"Shimatta!" she yelled while quickly grabbing her things and running out of the classroom.

"That fucking white haired pervert should have woken me up! Damn him! Now I actually have to run to Iruka's class..." Considering where her next classes building was located there really wasn't a problem, however she didn't like walking into a classroom full of students. They always had their eyes on her and she hated it. She ran past students in the courtyard and even bumped into a few of them in the hallway.

Taking a breath outside of Iruka's classroom, she walked in as though she had not run all the way there. In fact, one would think she hadn't even been winded. Yae, once again, was sitting in Iruka's classroom long before Itachi had even gotten into the building.

Iruka always seemed surprised at how early she seemed to get there, but had never said anything on the matter. Not that she would have answered. Before the class started, she was writing the homework assignment for her next class, ANBU literature.

She hadn't had the time the night before to write down any dreams she 'had' the previous night. When she dreamt, it was always very strange and usually had some form of violence or death integrated into it. Hearing someone sit next to her, she smiled at the sight of Itachi.

"You made it with time to spare today. I'm surprised you learned the layout this quickly." She made no move to tell him it had taken her a week since she was horrible with directions; she may have been smart but she couldn't find her way out of a wet paper bag.

"Did you do Kakashi-sensei's 'dream' assignment?" she asked when Itachi had looked at the paper she had been writing on.

"I wrote it before school." She beamed happily. That was a much better improvement from that morning's conversation already. .

"Well speaking of school assignments, I forgot to tell you earlier. Since I happen to have art before you and I've had his class before so I know what he's having us do I should probably tell you something and then you can tell me if you want to help or not." Yae continued on to explain the things she had heard from Jiraiya. Once everything was explained she looked expectantly at Itachi. He nodded his head in agreement making her smile.

"We should do either a drawing or a painting since those are the arts I excel at." Itachi merely stared at her. "You are going to make me choose aren't you?" there seemed to be a slight amusement in his eyes but still Itachi remained silent.

"Fine we are doing a painting. I think should start to figure out what we will be painting then. Do you have any ideas?" Itachi shook his head.

"Fine. If I come up with the idea you _have _to help paint it!" Itachi seemed to mull the idea over in his mind before answering with a 'hn' which only succeeded in irritating Yae.

"Can you say anything other then 'hm'?" Yae huffed childishly when he ignored her.

"Well since I'm assuming you agree. I do have an idea of what to paint. How about a ninja battling a demon, like the ones we always hear stories about. Or we could do something completely original and paint an animal or flower?" Smirking at the last bit, she watched Itachi's lips curl into a slight smile.

"We can decide after you draw out the sketch." Yae mock bowed.

"Thanks for having a lot of faith in me." There was a cough from the front of the room and Yae had the grace to look sheepish when everyone's attention was directed at her and Itachi.

"Anyway, as I was saying. For the mid-term you need to know up to the following material-" Yae stuck her tongue out at Iruka the moment his gaze drifted from her. Hiding her face with the black hood she mentally copied down the chapters they had to know.

"I already memorized that. Looks like I don't have to pay attention anymore." Whispering, she motioned for Itachi to take the paper she had drawn on in second.

"It's a really rough sketch of my painting idea." After analyzing it, Itachi faced her with an odd expression.

"That is a rough sketch?" Nodding mutely, she wondered what had caused that question.

"If the painting ends up better than this, I think we will pass." Yae blinked. Did he just covertly compliment her? Allowing a warm smile to spread across her half hidden face, they pair lapsed into silence for the second time that day; this silence however was a comfortable one.

"One last thing class-" before Iruka could finish his sentence, the bell rang and the students all but ran out of the classroom.

"Shall we?" Yae and Itachi walked quietly out of the classroom and headed to their next class. Feeling eyes on them, Yae stopped with an annoyed sigh.

"You really need to work on your stalking technique because it really, really sucks." The first time that Yae had caught Jennifer silently stalking them, and probably thinking of revenge, she had been mildly amused by it. However the sixth time, she was not amused anymore. There was a small gasp and Jenifer fell out of her hiding spot.

"Honestly, it's been what, not even two days since Itachi came to the school. Are you seriously going to keep stalking him just because he blew you off?" With hands on her hips, Yae glared at the brunette.

"What about the lunch incident!" Jennifer snapped.

"That was an accident, a hilarious accident, but an accident none the less. I only meant to hit you with the food not have it fall into your clothes." Yae stifled a laugh thinking about it.

"I will get you back! Just you wait!" Jennifer yelled in surprise as the late bell rang and she scrambled off to her classroom.

"Good thing Kakashi is always late." Arriving in the classroom, Yae tiredly threw her bag onto the floor and silently hoped the lid to her lunch stayed put. Twenty minutes later, Kakashi walked into class with his little orange book already pulled out.

"Sorry everyone for being late. You see, I found an injured dolphin in the hallway and had to kiss it all better." Yae laughed at his excuse.

"You could at least use a different name for Iruka-sensei seeing as half the student body knows his name means 'dolphin' in Japanese." Kakashi glowered at her.

"And the rest of them know now as well." A few of the girls in the class giggled.

"For that, I think you will be going first." Yae sat up straight in her chair.

"Going first?" There was a strangely evil look in her teacher's eyes that she didn't like.

"Remember those dreams I'm having you write down?" Everyone nodded.

"Well, I'm having you all read them out loud in class. Yae, if you would start us off?" Cursing him under her breath, she dug around in her bag and pulled out a sheet of paper.

"Fine, but I'm not standing up." Crossing her legs and using her left knee as a armrest, she began.

"From the moment I opened my eyes my senses were on fire. There was something coming near us. Something dangerous. Dully looking around the room, my companions and I could find nothing out of the sort; our slouched and broken bodies ambling quietly along. Our quiet existence was shattered as a door burst open; the hinges snapped and fell to the ground and suddenly we were the hunted. "

With the first few sentences, she had grabbed the entire rooms attention. Everyone seemed to want to know what was going on, it was more like a story rather then a dream.

"Two of my companions charged at the intruders and the rest of us watched as they were slaughtered by the metal weapons. My face scrunched up into a snarl; as much of a snarl as it could manage in its gruesome state. Lunging foreword my mouth closed over the nearest body part and teeth sank into soft, pliable flesh."

One girl gasped slightly at the description and Yae rolled her eyes.

"The groans of my companions were hidden under the screams of our hunters. One of the metal weapons sliced through my shoulder and dark blood fell in small globs to the floor. Not feeling any pain, I watched as this hunter was taken down by three of my companions; I moved on to the other room where I heard more commotion. As stealthily as I could manage, I snuck up on a blond hunter and colored its world in red. Falling to the ground, I watched myself in the shattered remains of a fallen mirror. Flesh hung off my face and arms; part of my bottom lip was missing along with a part of my face. Tearing off a piece of the hunter, I was content with my life. My life as the dead."

Finishing her dream, Yae was met with silence.

"You dreamed you were a zombie?" Kakashi asked.

"It's not the strangest or darkest dream I've had." She shrugged her shoulder and was met with Itachi's intense gaze.

"You have a similar sort of dream?" he hesitated in answering.

"Similar, in a way." Yae left her question at that and they both listened to some of the other students dreams. Some of them, thinking that only the teacher was going to read them _(if he actually decided to do something)_ had written out very embarrassing dreams.

One of them dealing with the student being stuck in a giant fun house while clown faced jack-in-the-boxes chased them with blood covered knives. Yae was laughing so hard at one point that she didn't even make a sound but ended up gasping for breath anyway.

"Well now, I know if I dream anything even remotely embarrassing not to write it down."

Inwardly agreeing, Itachi thought back to his own dream. It bothered him every time he had it and he didn't even know why. Itachi watched Yae sign off the computer with blank eyes and blinked when she waved a hand in front of his face.

"Oh good, for a moment I thought this boring school had turned your brain to mush. Or maybe the zombies from my dream had eaten it?" she shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"Well class, I'm leaving early so you all can do what you want, but if you get caught in the hall before the bell rings, it's your problem." Kakashi walked out of the room while reading his porn in one hand and a bag in the other.

"What a useless sensei, he didn't even take our work..." Itachi could hear Yae grumbling under her breath about how the school was run by perverts with white hair and mentally smirked.

"Is everything of yours packed up?" Noticing his notebook still sitting atop the keyboard, he shoved it inside of his bag and looked at her. Shaking her head, she threw her bag over her shoulder just as the bell rang.

She waited impatiently for Itachi to get up and follow her. She really didn't like being in the crowded hallways with all of those people in them.

Once finally outside, Yae stopped walking and turned to face Itachi.

"Do you want to go to the roof today? It's usually quieter there. And as a plus you won't have to deal with your stalker." Itachi shrugged but was inwardly thankful to get away from Jennifer; she really was staring to irritate him. If he were a less controlled person, he might have already told off.

Following Yae, who was talking about something that had happened in second that she had chosen not to mention before, Itachi noticed there were stairs on the other side of the cafeteria. It was a small, slightly rickety staircase that lead all the way to the roof.

"Not many people use this because it looks unsafe, but it was made that way for that reason exactly. That way no one wants to use it." Itachi walked calmly up the steps while Yae ran up them and yelped when she tripped on the last step; just barely catching herself, she stood up straight.

"Idiot." she pouted at Itachi, which he chose to ignore. While Yae was correct that there were hardly any students on the roof, there were still a few. Itachi recognized Kisame as one of the students who were sitting in a group with their legs dangling off the edge of the building. Seeing Itachi, Kisame got up and ran over to him.

"Hey Itachi, what are you doing up here?" The blue haired male had a large grin on his face and his tall form partially blocked out the sun.

"Eating lunch. What do you want Hoshigaki?" Yae's voice was cold from her position only a few feet away.

"Oh great you're here? There goes lunch." He frowned at her and turned back to Itachi.

"You know this thing?" Kisame pointed to Yae who growled.

"Yes." Itachi then ignored Kisame and continued walking past Yae to sit on the opposite side of the roof. Yae's golden eyes seemed to bore into Kisame who shivered and threw his hands up in defeat. Satisfied that he wasn't going to annoy her, Yae walked over to Itachi and sat beside him.

"Any reason you don't like him?" Yae shook her head and took out her lunch as Itachi did the same.

_'There is obviously something more going on then she is willing to tell me. Then again it could just be because he is annoying.'_

Silently they ate their lunch while enjoying the view. The day was a bright one with a warm sun hanging high in the sky while fluffy clouds lazily passed by. Yae had just taken a bite of chicken and rice when she turned and pointed the sharper end of her chopsticks at the throat of the person standing behind her.

"You're getting lazy if it took you that long to notice I was here." Not dropping her arm, Yae spoke to the red haired boy.

"No, I just wanted to get a bite of chicken in before I dealt with you. What do you want?" turning her head to the side Itachi noted there wasn't the same look of hatred on her face as when Kisame had approached them.

"Just to see the guy Deidara has been bugging me about for the entire day." Yae's eyes narrowed.

"So I'm guessing you also met Tobi as well Itachi?" Itachi nodded while keeping his eyes on the strange red headed boy in front of them. Lowering her chopstick, she turned back to her food deciding to ignore the boy now.

"Go away Sasori, you can bother Itachi in a few more minutes when sixth period starts." Sasori's facial expression remained the same as he walked away back to the small group on the other side of the roof.

"I'm assuming you have already heard about Sasori from Deidara and Tobi? It ought to be an interesting class for you today now that Sasori is back." In the back of her mind, Yae was beginning to think that Itachi meeting most of those boys so soon wasn't merely a coincidence. A light breeze drifted through the air gently lifting Yae's hair off her shoulders.

With an annoyed sigh she used her left hand to hold back her hair so she could eat; her sleeve fell down to her elbow exposing her pale skin. Itachi was surprised to see the edges of jagged scars coming from underneath her wrists to curl around to the other side.

Yae didn't seem to notice anything and Itachi wasn't about to bother her. A peaceful silence hung over them as they enjoyed their lunches. Yae had only eaten about half of hers when she put her chopsticks away and covered the food container.

Letting go of her hair, she carefully replaced the uneaten food in her bag and sat back; her hands gripped the edges of the building as she gazed contentedly at the sky. As another breeze filter through the air she closed her eyes and allowed a small sigh escape her lips.

_'What makes her so...interesting to me?'_ Itachi had also stopped eating and was looking at Yae who held a calm expression_._

_'I have only known her for two days yet she acts like we have been lifelong friends...why?'_

"Damn the breeze went away again." A sour look crossed her features and she stood up slightly unbalanced. While she was stretching, Itachi heard a few of her bones crack. Looking down at him, she offered him a hand up. Taking it, she tugged him into a standing position.

"We probably should have crawled away from the edge or something before trying to get up, oh well. So..." Her gold eyes seemed to dance in the sunlight; she felt eyes staring at her.

"Kisame do you know what's up with Yae, she is acting a little weird un?" Deidara said from his position beside Sasori.

"Eh? What do you mean weird? She's still being a bitch so..." Deidara smacked Kisame in the head and stared at him as though he had missed something important.

"Are you kidding me, un?" Hidan laughed while a boy with strange scars on his face remained silent, but grinning.

"Kisame you are fucking stupid. Do you fucking pay attention to anything?" Crossing his arms, the blue haired boy glared at his 'friends'.

"What these idiots mean to say is that she has been overly active lately. You should know that she doesn't talk this much nor associate with anyone." A look of understanding dawned on Kisame's face.

"Fucking idiot." Hidan muttered. "I'm immediately reminded why I'm happy I don't have any classes with you Hidan. Really. Anyway the bell just rang so I'm going." Standing, Kisame turned and left without so much as a goodbye.

"Great going Hidan you pissed him off." the scared boy shook his head and pulled some of Hidan's silver hair.

"You should owe me money for that, now he's going to be grumpy all 6th period."

"I'll meet you inside the gym today, see you later!" Yae yelled while jumping down half of the small steps of the staircase. Adjusting his bag, Itachi walked down slowly and began his trek into building eight.

"Itachi!" a loud voice yelled. Itachi's good mood vanished in an instant. Jennifer bounded over to him and immediately tried to cling to his arm; moving slightly to the left it caused her to stumble rather then latch onto him. Placing a hand on one of her too boney hips she flicked her hair back.

"Why won't you pay attention to me? I'm hot so you should be fawning over me?!" Itachi blinked. _'Did she really just say that? How conceded.' _His eyes twitched slightly and a small amount of pain was felt.

_'That's the second time this week that has happened...'_ Continuing on as though he hadn't even encountered her, he could hear her scream in rage behind him. Thankfully the art building wasn't that far away.

Itachi took in all the sights around him while walking to class. The courtyard he was currently walking through was set up in a square shape with a large circle in the middle. The outer portion of the courtyard was made of dark grey concert blocks designed to look similar to cobblestones.

The circular part was a grassy area with a large tree in the middle where some students were currently taking refuge under while talking or enjoying lunch. A small bench was situated on one side of the tree while three more were placed around other parts of the courtyard along with a few trashcans.

Stepping into building eight he only had about a minute to get to his classroom before the bell rang; he had just as he walked inside when it rang. Tobi was waving at him franticly while Deidara worked on finishing his bird.

"Before anyone decides to do anything _(Jiraiya looks pointedly at Deidara and Sasori who were working) _I want your full attention for what I'm going to tell you." This immediately had everyone's attention.

"As you all know, it's almost that time of year that everyone enjoys so much, midterm exams." Everyone but Itachi groaned.

"Rather then test you on things you probably won't even remember, I'm going to give you a large project that is worth 50 of your test grade." Itachi tuned the rest of Jiraiya's speech out seeing as Yae had already told him about it.

The project criteria was rather simple, it was finding something to do that was the hard part. It could also be done with a partner who also had art whether they had the same class or not.

The main thing was that they had to make some sort of art worthy of going in the art show that was being held just after mid-terms and just before Christmas break.

Yae had suggested they do a painting and had already shown him a sketch of the painting; she was supposedly very good with both of those two things. As long as Itachi helped her a little bit then they would both get the grade in the end.

Needles to say, Itachi had agreed only because he didn't want to get stuck with someone else should they ask.

"Itachi do you want to be Tobi's partner for this project?" Tobi looked expectantly at him.

"I am already working with someone." Deidara looked up from his work at that statement.

"How can you already be working with someone when we just got this assignment, un?" Taking out homework he hadn't finished from his third period, Itachi looked at Deidara who appeared curious.

"Yae told me." Concentrating on his work, he missed the surprised look Deidara had gotten. Sasori glanced at Deidara from over his puppets head and the two seemed to have a silent conversation.

_'If her sketch work is anything to go by then her painting skills should be great as well. If we do stick with the painting, I don't see how I will be able to do much with the actual project...'_

Mulling over the pros and cons of both choices, he quickly finished the two pages of homework Anko had assigned. Itachi looked up to find Jiraiya standing next to him.

"You seem to have everything on this project figured out, so what are you doing?" Jiraiya was hoping to catch the dark eyed boy off guard but was sorely disappointed.

"I am working with Sakimoto Yae, who is in your second period class. She suggested we do a painting for our mid-term." Jiraiya smiled.

"Yae is very good with painting, you are lucky she seems to have taken an interest in you. You will get an easy grade working with her. But I do expect you to work. If you know this much then you already knew about the written portion, I assume you will be doing that mostly by yourself and only helping a little with the actual painting?" Itachi nodded silently while calmly watching Deidara place a clay spider in Jiraiya's hair.

Since the actual art piece was only worth 50 of the mid-term grade, the students also had to write a small essay or report on why they chose their art medium and what inspired them to create it along with any techniques they may have used. They also had to title their work. Once Jiraiya had gotten all the information on what the others were going to do, he walked away from their table and continued on to another.

"Not many people transfer here in the middle of the year, you must have some very good stats. What school did you come from?" Sasori watched Itachi's face with a raised eyebrow; Itachi didn't even look up from his work.

"I was home schooled." The others openly stared at him.

"Home schooled? And you got in here? You must be a freaking genius, un!"

"I was transferred here just before school started. I came from Iwa High and Sasori came from Suna High. No one knows where Tobi came from; he was just here one day, un." Deidara forgot he was concentration for a reason and a the sound of a very small explosion rang out in the classroom.

"Damn it!" Deidara snickered and looked at Jiraiya who had smoke coming off of his head.

"I wouldn't laugh if I were you Deidara; I'm giving you detention with Ibiki tomorrow!"

"It was still worth it..." the blond yelled to his teacher.

"If you would have chosen a different form of art that wasn't so flashy then you wouldn't get in trouble all the time. That's why my art is superior." Sasori calmly stated while tinkering with one of the tiny puppets joints. Itachi noted that Sasori also had a ring on his finger on; it was on his left thumb.

_'Why do so many students have rings like that?'_

"Art is supposed to be fleeting not eternal! Art should be there one moment and gone the next! My art is better then your crappy puppets, un!" the two boys continued to bicker amongst themselves while Tobi began to talk out loud to himself.

_'Is everyone in this school insane?'_ In another classroom, in one of the main buildings, Yae was thinking roughly the same thing.

Anko walked into the room and immediately all eyes were on her. Whether it was because of the clothing she wore or the fact that she frightened people, no one knew.

"Starting today, I'm giving you all lots of work to do to get you all ready for the midterm exams. I expect at least half of you to fail." she said nonviolently while some of the students jaws dropped.

"Aren't you supposed to say 'I expect at least half of to pass!'" one of them yelled. Anko laughed and slammed her hand on her desk scaring them.

"I can say whatever I want! Besides I'm telling you the truth, you wouldn't want me to lie now would you?" her voice took an innocent tone towards the ends and someone snorted.

"Don't try and play innocent Anko-san, it doesn't suit you." A few people cringed and expected the person who said that to be killed. Instead, Anko laughed, which seemed to scare the front row students even more then a fellow students death would have.

"Nice of you to finally say something in this class other then 'hn' Sakimoto." Yae replied with a 'your welcome' before waving her completed weeks worth of work in the air.

"For those students who don't live in a economics book (_Anko stares at Yae)_ you will have to have pages 205-692 read by Friday and all of the questions at the end of each chapter completed." A few students passed out from shock while other kissed their social lives goodbye. Yae rolled her eyes.

"They act like they have never had to do that before. Idiots." A soft laugh was heard and Yae turned her eyes to her teacher. They had instantly hated each other when they had met, but after a while Anko seemed to respect the fact that she could never seem to 'get' to Yae no matter what she did. "So how much of the book did you actually do?" With a sigh, Anko took the stack of completed work out of Yae's hands.

"I read most of the book but only did about half of the work so far, I do it when I'm bored." Anko shook her head, her purple hair barely moved from its position.

"And the other students are not idiots, you are just smarter then all of them. _(Someone trips on a chair and falls over a desk causing laughter)_ Ok 'most' of them are not idiots." Yae laughs.

"So, care to tell me why you decided to actually talk in class?" Gold eyes narrowed.

"Why is everyone bothering me about that! Maybe I just got bored..." Anko sat on the edge of Yae's desk making the people in the front sigh in relief that she wasn't going to be back for a while.

"Ok fine. But at least tell me what you did to Orochimaru that has him cursing every time someone asks him about his first period?"

"What makes you think I did anything?" Anko looked at her, just _looked_.

"I'm making sure he can't go near his newest obsession." Anko's eyes widened and she leaned in closer to Yae.

"Who is it?!" Forcefully ignoring the urge to drop her head on the desk, Yae answered.

"Uchiha Itachi. You know, the new student?" Anko nodded.

"But why him? That rotten snake bastard-" Anko was poked in the arm a few times before she stopped her would be rant.

"You didn't seem to notice how loud your voice was getting. Besides he won't go near the boy if I'm around him." Rubbing her arm Anko looked confused.

"Why would that be?" Yae shrugged and put her headphones back in. Realizing there was going to be no more talking to her student for now, Anko got up and left.

_'The answer is: because I was his previous obsession.'_ Yae thought darkly. A scream caught her attention so she looked over to the other side of the room.

"You killed him!" Anko laughed creepily.

"He just passed out; you guys can't take a joke!" The door burst open and a boy in green spandex rushed in.

"The principle request to see you after this class period is over!" Lee half yelled.

"Ok I got the message now leave you spandex freak." saluting her, Lee cried out 'alright mission complete' before running back out of the classroom. Yae placed her head in her hands and mock cried.

_'I'm surrounded by insane people!_' Glancing at the clock, she mentally noted that there was only fifteen minutes left of class.

"I must have been talking with Anko-sensei longer then I thought. At least she's good for something." Yawning quietly, she quickly went through her checklist to make sure everything she needed to be complete was in fact complete. The only thing that wasn't done so far was Kakashi's homework, but she would wait until each morning to do that.

And of course if Tsunade assigned them something that couldn't be completed in class. So that meant that she had a free night unless something came up and she was called into work. She really wished she didn't have to work but one must pay rent if they wish to live somewhere...

"HOW IS MY YOUTHFUL STUDENT TODAY?!" Yae winced at the loudness of her teachers voice and wished she hadn't come to class.

"Everything is perfect Gai-sensei..." Silently she wished for him to leave.

"NOW THAT EVERYONE IS HERE, I HAVE A SPECIAL ANNONCEMENT." Yae as seriously thinking about taking out her headphones as she inched away from him.

"WE WILL BE TO USE THE POOL FROM NOW ON SINCE THEY HAVE FINALLY FIXED IT! NOW WITH THAT YOUTHFUL ENERGY RUN THREE LAPS AROUND THE GYM!" Yae stopped in her tracks.

"Pool? Fixed? Crap..." Hanging her head, she walked back to her insane teacher.

"Gai-sensei? About the pool..." His smile dimmed a little as he listened to her.

"Ah...How to put this..." Shifting rather uncomfortably she sighed heavily.

"I have scars on my arms and back that I'd rather not have people see...Can I get a note or something so my grades don't go down from me not swimming?" She really hated whoever fixed the pool at that moment. She really did. Thankfully, Gai seemed to realize she didn't want it voiced to the entire class so he kept his voice relatively normal.

"I'm sure if you talked to the principle that she will work something out. If not, speak with me again and I'll see if I can do something." His smile was soft but light was still reflected off of his teeth.

"Thank you." He motioned for her to join the others who had finished running and were practically falling to the ground in exhaustion. Itachi looked at her curiously now that she had joined him.

"I'm seeing if I can get out of swimming. I'm allergic to the chemicals they use." She smiled at her own quick thinking. _'It must have something to do with the scars I saw on her arms during lunch._' Itachi thought to himself.

"NOW THAT WE HAVE ALL WARMED UP WE CAN START ON TODAYS GAME!" Gai's look-alike, Rock Lee came running into the room while holding a small bag filled with something. "WE WILL BE PLAYING BASKETBALL!" Simultaneous groans littered the room.

Gai had decided that since there were six basketball hoops in the room that they could all choose where to practice but that one of the hoops would be used for an actual if anyone wanted to play. Grabbing a basketball, Yae and Itachi moved to one of the hoops on the opposite side of the room; it also happened to have the least amount of people already there.

The four of them took turns throwing the ball into, or in some cases at the hoop.

"This is really boring..." Yae effortlessly passed the ball to Itachi who threw it in the direction of the hoop without even really looking.

That's not fair." Yae pouted when the ball went in.

"But you see what I mean about boring, you can't possibly be getting anything out of this?" He stared blankly at her.

"Really? Wow, I'm glade we had this talk." she said sarcastically.

"Me too." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Real funny Itachi."

The rest of the class passed just as slowly as it had begun, with Yae and sometimes Itachi insulting each other in a friendly manner.

"Thank god the bell rang! I felt my IQ dropping every second we spent here!" Yae heard someone yell from across the room.

"I highly doubt their IQ could drop any farther. Lets go Itachi, Tsunade _will kill us_ if we are late."

When they entered the classroom, Yae automatically walked up to Tsunade's desk and waited until she was sure Tsunade was at least paying attention.

"Gai-sensei told me I should speak with you about getting out of swimming in school." At hearing Gai's name Tsunade's head snapped up from her paperwork.

"Why would you need to get out of swimming, if I may ask?" Tsunade folded her hands and stared at Yae.

"I have scars all over my body that I don't want anyone seeing." Yae knew she would have to tell some of the truth or she would end up flunking because of it.

"Do you have any proof of these scars?" Glaring slightly at Tsunade, she pulled up her left sleeve revealing the scars that seemed to wrap around her arm in a manner that would be impossible to do to yourself. Tsunade gasped.

"You have more like that?" Yae nodded.

"How did you-" Yae cut her off.

"I'm sorry but how I got them really isn't anyone's business." Tsunade nodded respectfully.

"Well I will get the paper work for that done by the end of the week, for now though just give this to Gai and tell him to talk to me if he has any questions on this. Only questions on this." Yae allowed a smirk to appear.

Apparently even the principle couldn't stand Gai with his 'youthful' speeches. Taking the paper from the outstretched hand, she nodded and walked over to Itachi who regarded the note.

"She is going to let me out of it thankfully. Now I won't have to fail." she added happily at the end.

"You on the other hand, are going to be mauled the second the girls see you without a shirt. I will miss you." She pretended to wipe away invisible tears making him frown.

_'I forgot about that. This is becoming more and more of an unpleasant experience as the days go on.'_ His eyes twitched as he was poked. Yae who had been watching smirked and poked him again.

"Did you know that your eye twitches when I poke you?" she asked innocently.

"Yes." he said simply. Sighing, she eventually got bored with poking him _(sadly his glares didn't effect her)_ out her painting sketch. "Well since I'm already done with my work, I'm going to try and refine this sketch." Taking out a coal pencil, she directed her attention to the paper. Itachi watched her hands move across the page in short fluid motions, outlining, shading and adding things to the picture.

A piece of hair fell out from the hoodie and landed in her face; every time she breathed it would lift slightly before falling back down. Itachi looked at her hands and noticed the strange way that she was holding the pencil; perhaps that was the secret to her skills. But Itachi doubted it.

"Everybody listen up." Tsunade walked to the middle of the class.

"I know I said I would wait another week or so before telling you what your project will be..." she trailed off and most of the students were looking at her expectantly.

"But I'm impatient so I will tell you in another day or two." A few students banged their heads on something while others protested.

"Don't fucking toy with us like that for fucks sake!" Tsunade laughed.

"I'm your teacher and its fun to do these things toy you. Just wait until you find out what the project is, I'm you will be swearing up a storm over it Hidan." Hidan scowled at her and probably would have said something nasty to get himself in trouble but Kakuzu covered his mouth with one hand and smacked him in the head with the other.

"They act like a married couple." Yae murmured even though her eyes had never left the paper.

"Alright brats, it's about a minute from the bell so get ready. I want you all to leave as quickly as possible so I can leave before it gets dark." Itachi watched as Yae silently put away her drawing materials and finally the sketch, into her bag.

"So do you think it's good so far?" She knew Itachi had been watching her, she could feel his eyes on her.

"Yes." She was about to reply when the final bell rang.

"See you tomorrow." Waving goodbye to Itachi, she walked quickly form the room, she never liked to be stuck in school more then she had to. There were just far too many people around her than she felt comfortable with.

Pulling the hood over her hair to hide her face once she was out of the stairwell, she crossed the courtyard. All around her people were smiling and laughing and making plans for when they arrived home. Yae wondered what that was like, to look foreword to going home.

"Onto more worrisome matters...Why are Hoshigaki and Akasuna interested in Itachi? There has to be a reason. Doesn't there?" Quietly she walked down the street leading away from the school. Hearing a slight rumble, she glanced upward and noticed a few dark clouds rolling in.

"Hopefully I'll be home before it starts raining." She didn't count on it; whenever it rained it always seemed she had o walk in it. She passed all sorts of shops and businesses while walking through the center of town. She smiled fondly at the tattoo shop as though remembering something happy.

"I need a car...If only I didn't have to pay rent." she whined to herself. Pulling her hood more securely around her face, she broke into a run when the rain started; she ran down an alleyway to cut the distance left to her home in half. She didn't exactly live in a nice neighborhood.

There were murders, robberies and kidnappings all the time; but that didn't really bother her. She lived on the second floor of a really old apartment building. The white paint on the outside was more of a faded yellow color after so many years; in the stairwells the drywall was cracked and crumbling leaving chunks littering the steps. It wasn't a bad place to live, but it wasn't a good one either.

It took another ten minutes of running to get to her apartment, and by that time, she was soaked. Unlocking the outer door to the apartment complex and relocking them, she made her way up to the second floor all the while leaving a trail of water behind her. Reaching apartment number fourteen, she pushed the door open. She didn't bother locking her door most of the time, there wasn't anything of value to steal anyway.

_(Never mind the fact that half of the time she forgot to lock the door) _Throwing her keys on the table and leaving her shoes by the door, she began to strip off her clothes. The hoodie came off relatively easy considering the amount of water it held.

The shirt she had underneath was another story.

"Forget it!" she growled at the stupid piece of clothing. She instead turned her attention to her cargo pants and socks. Carefully taking her phone and money and placing them on the table, she put the wet clothes in the laundry hamper by the bathroom door.

The walls on the inside of her apartment had originally been covered by a rather horrible blue wallpaper. It had been dingy and stained by god knew what until she had saved up enough money to rip down the wallpaper and paint the walls. She had decided on three different colors. A deep red for the living room/kitchen, a pale green for the small bathroom and black for her own bedroom.

_(She liked her room to be dark and for little to no light to be in it)_

Putting on a pair of black jeans, she barely had time to button them before her phone was ringing.

"Hello?" There was a small crinkling noise that almost sounded like a cigarette wrapper. As the person spoke, Yae expression darkened and her eyes narrowed.

"I see...I'll be there in fifteen minutes." Slamming her phone shut, she resisted the urge to bang her head on the wall.

"Looks like it'll be another sleepless night. And it has to be raining. Just perfect." Pulling her hair back and grabbing a few hair ties from the bathroom counter, she put her hair up into a bun. Turning on the faucet and putting soap on a washcloth, she proceeded to remove the black make up that made her look like a panda, or maybe an insomniac. Popping out her gold contacts, she put blue ones in their place.

Opening the medicine cabinet, she pocketed a long item and grabbed a role of blue bandages and closing the cabinet again. Carefully, she wrapped her arms in the blue material all the way up to just past her elbows. She pinned the bandages in place before opening a small closet located in the corner of the small bathroom and yanking on a black trench coat that had a hood in the back. Shaking her head she sighed while grabbing the keys that she had thrown on the table only minutes beforehand.

"This really sucks.." She didn't bother taking her cell phone or anything else with her. Looking at the clock on the counter it read 3 pm.

"Well, I guess I'll see you whenever I'm done. Don't wait up." she called into the empty apartment before closing the door. At times she really hated how silent it could be.

In another location, Itachi was just arriving home. He immediately noticed that something was different. His mother was in the kitchen making a snack, presumably for Sasuke, but Sasuke was no where to be seem.

"Where's Sasuke?" Mikoto smiled warmly at her eldest son.

"He's out back, I'm sure you'll be surprised. Why don't you tell him that the snack is ready?" Itachi nodded and went to do as his mother asked. But in truth her words had him curious_. _

_'What would I be surprised at?'_

At the back of the house there was a large piece of flat land that was fenced in using a privacy fence. There was a small pond right by the steps with clear blue water and fish. A rock pathway led to a small garden that his mother had insisted on. It was filled with an array of beautifully colored flowers and in the center was a large maple tree. The rest of the yard was free space filled with luscious dark green grass.

He heard loud joyous laughter as he slid the door open and blinked in surprise. Sasuke, along with a blond haired boy, were playing some sort of game and laughing. What was surprising was that Sasuke never had any friends over, seeing as he didn't make friends easily who didn't only like him because he was 'cute' or had money.

Taking a step onto the grass, Itachi walked over to the boys who had now stopped playing in favor of watching Itachi.

"Sasuke, is this your brother? He looks like you." the blond stated.

"Aniki, this is my friend Naruto!" Sasuke had latched onto him and looked up at him with a wide smile.

"So I see. Are you two having fun?" The boys nodded wildly.

"By the way, your snacks are ready." Both boys looked at each other and took off running toward the house leaving Itachi behind.

"At least you won't be alone now..." Itachi said softly while following them back to the house.

After placing his things in his room, he joined them in the kitchen. Itachi sat down beside Sasuke and across from his mother. She smiled at him again and handed him a cup of tea, which he accepted.

"Aniki, have you met any friends at your new school?" Sasuke munched on his snack and all eyes were on him.

"Perhaps." Sasuke nearly choked on his food and took a sip of water.

"Really? Can we meet them sometime? They are probably really cool if you know them..." Itachi regarded his brother with a raised eyebrow.

"You probably will. We are working on an art related mid-term project so she will have to come over sometime if we wish to complete it." Mikoto looked surprised when he had said 'she' and Sasuke had laughed.

"Aniki has a girlfriend!" Itachi's eyes twitched and his mother hid her laugh behind a hand.

"She is just a...friend." The word friend seemed peculiar to Itachi; he was usually too busy to have friends so it was odd to use that to describe someone in his life. Sasuke pouted but went back to his snack when Naruto poked his side.

"Now that you boys are done, you can go wash up and play until it gets dark." They both yelled in excitement and raced off.

"Itachi, your father is working late tonight, why don't you go spend some time with Sasuke and his friend." His mother always told him when his father was working late to make sure Itachi did at least get to see his brother once in a while. It seemed that if things were left up to his father, Itachi would never see his brother. Naruto literally ran into Itachi as he exited the bathroom, and fell to the floor with a small 'ow'. Naruto looked up fearfully at Itachi as he expected to be yelled at.

_'Just what kind of life does this boy have?'_ Extending his hand, he noted the way the blond sank back a little.

"I'm not that scary looking am I?" he questioned softly to the boy. Realizing he wasn't going to be hurt, the boy smiled brightly and shook his head. Taking Itachi's hand, he allowed himself to be pulled from the floor.

"Come on Sasuke is waiting!" Naruto grabbed the older boy's hand and gently tugged him out into the backyard. "Naruto let go of aniki. He probably has stuff to do!" Naruto dropped Itachi's hand and mumbled a small apology.

"Actually Sasuke, I don't have anything else to do right now." Sasuke's eyes widened.

"Really? Does that mean you'll play with us?!" Itachi nodded and this time two small bodies latched onto him.

"Let's go aniki, Naruto!" Sasuke tugged on both of them and Itachi was happy to oblige. Mikoto watched from the doorway with small tears falling.

"Get as much time with him as you can."

-End Chapter-

**AN:** Aww little Sasuke is so cute! Too bad he ends up being such a bastard huh? Oh well...what can you do. So has anyone got any ideas as to where I plan on going with this fic? I left lots of clues that are obvious...Any who...PLEASE REVIEW! I'm not one of those authors who withhold the next chapter for reviews _(seriously I'd be holding that next chapter forever if I did that...nobody loves me...)_ but I do like reviews. Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, all of that will be taken into consideration and the fic will be better because of it. It will probably be a while before the next chapter is out seeing as college crept up on me again...But who knows right?

**Chapter 3 Preview: **_"Well look what the cat dragged in?" Staring evenly at the man she smiled, it was a hollow smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I'm glad you can finally admit that you look like crap. You know, admitting your flaws is the first step to becoming a better person. I'm happy for you." With a small wave she left her fuming teacher in the front of the classroom while a few students tried to stifle their laughter. Itachi looked at her slightly stooped posture and raised an eyebrow in question. He really didn't think Orochimaru would let him get away with talking to her today. "I had a long night and didn't get much sleep. If I get three hours of sleep I'm hyper but it I get slightly more then that or broken sleep, I'll fell tired and irritable. Makes sense right?" she said sarcastically._

What a great preview right? -Dodges tomatoes-

**Teme**-bastard

**Hebi-** snake

**Shimatta**- damn it

**Sensei**- teacher (honestly who doesn't know this one?)

**Aniki**- brother


	3. Chapter 3: The Illusionist's Reality

**Disclaimer:** HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY I DONT OWN IT!? _(If I did Itachi wouldn't be dead and Naruto would be his...well lets not go there..) _I also don't own _'__Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' _or the Game Show Network.

**AN:** I know that I put Rock Lee in the fic even though he should technically be around the same age as Sasuke and the others, but I decided that he'd fit better with Itachi and the others rather then being a student with the rookie nine. But don't worry, in the sequel I have planned for this _(after I finish this...)_ he'll be like Gai's assistant teacher or something. So he'll still be there to annoy people!

**CHAPTER 3: The Illusionist's Reality **

Itachi's dark eyes glanced uncertainly at the clock above the doorway; Yae still wasn't there and class was about to start. He had waited for her outside of the classroom as she had the day before, but after ten minutes had gone inside and sat down in the very back. Every minute that clicked by made Orochimaru smile wider; he too apparently noticing that Yae wasn't there yet. As soon as the bell to first period rang his gaze had drifted languidly over to Itachi. The smirk Orochimaru wore was that of a predator and it made Itachi slightly uncomfortable, not that he'd ever show it. Orochimaru began the days lesson with an unusual vigor that made most of the class wary of him makingeven the most stoic ones shrink further into their chairs. A happy Orochimaru was never a _good _thing. "Now, my dear students..." the last portion was drawn out into a hiss like sound reminding them all of a snake. "You will all be having a small test tomorrow so that I will know what everyone needs to review for the upcoming mid-terms." the silence that stretched afterwards was broken by the loud squeaking of the classroom doors opening. Yae stood in the doorway appearing as though she belonged in a horror movie. The black hood that was usually obscuring her features was haphazardly thrown back; her hair was slightly frizzy and rested against the sides of her face while a portion of her bangs covered her left eye. Her face was unnaturally pale making the black eyeliner and eye shadow stand out giving her gold eyes an eerie appearance. "Well look what the cat dragged in?" staring evenly at Orochimaru she smiled, it was a hollow smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I'm glad you can finally admit that you look like crap. You know, admittance is the first step to becoming a better person. I'm happy for you." with a small wave she left her fuming teacher in the front of the classroom while a few students tried to stifle their laughter. Itachi looked at her partially stooped posture and raised an eyebrow in question. He really didn't think Orochimaru would let him get away with talking to her today after her entrance. "I had a long night and didn't get much sleep. If I get three hours of sleep I'm hyper but if I get slightly more then that or a broken sleep, I will feel tired and irritable. Makes sense right?" she said sarcastically. Flopping into the seat next to Itachi she laid her head on the desk and allowed her arms to hang limply by her sides. "Are you trying to look like the zombie from your dream?" amusement was clear in his eyes as he whispered softly making Yae groan. "Why do you have to be 'normal' on a day I feel like crap. Why?!" she murmured sleepily into the false wood of the desk. "As I was saying before we were interrupted, rather rudely I might add, you will-" Yae flipped Orochimaru off without even looking up and ignored the giggles of fellow classmates that had noticed the gesture. "I wish he would have a 'accident' and never come back...that teme(1)."

_'I suppose it's bad that I'm starting to agree with Yae. He has a staring problem and it has lost any amusing qualities if it ever had any in the first place.'_ Itachi kept his face blank and impassive as his thoughts whirled around in many different directions. Yae had watched him for a minute or two before closing her eyes and drifting off into a half sleep. The black hood had fallen forward to cover half of her face and casting a shadow on the other half. Her soft breathing was drowned out by their teachers monotonous talking as well as other smaller sounds filtering around the classroom. Ink colored bangs moved back and forth gently while she breathed and that was what Itachi found himself watching while the time in first period whittled away. Catching himself his gaze turned to the small clock that hung above the doorway and next to the loud speaker. It was only a few minutes before the end of class. _'Did I really spend that much time thinking...?' _movement beside him drew his attention to a pale faced Yae. There was an unreadable expression in her gold eyes while her sharp teeth lightly bit down on her bottom lip. "It has been a long time since I have dreamed of that time..." her voice was soft but seemed pained. As if only then realizing she wasn't alone she turned and smiled at Itachi. "I guess I should get more sleep so I won't dream such weird things right?" any response he may have had was cut off by the bell. Yawning widely Yae used the desk to push herself up into a standing position. "We should go." she threw a look toward Orochimaru who was conversing with a student about a paper they held out in front of them. Yae walked to the door quietly and let Itachi go first and was close enough to the teachers desk to hear a quiet _'You wont always be able to protect him' _from Orochimaru. "No, but I can try." she growled quietly. Sluggishly she made her way to art, not really caring if she was late of not. "If I have work tonight I'm going to die..." walking through the door at the last chime of the bell she sat closest to the door and slumped over onto the desk with a sigh. "I don't think so, you are going to work today so you better get up." sitting straight up she looked at the white haired pervert with half lidded eyes. "I really, really hate you right now." pulling the sketchpad from her bag she missed the odd look the Jiraiya gave her. Flipping to the page that held the mid-term project she dragged the pencil from the binding rings and slowly began to outline the figures in the drawing.

"You actually look worse then yesterday." with a frown she glared at her teacher. "If you want me to talk that is not a conversation starter, and I'm working so either you're doing this to piss me off, or you are having a momentary lapse in higher brain functions and have decided to interrupt me. So which is it?" the Sannin teacher laughed. "Normal teachers would write you up for that." staring pointedly at him she responded with _'good thing you're not normal then' _before ignoring him completely. "When you don't get enough sleep you get mean don't you?" the boy that had decided to sit across from her said smirking. If it were possible to burn holes through people from just looking at them Jiraiya was sure that his student kakuzu would be nothing more then ash. The look in Yae's gold eyes made her appear like a starved animal. "I am not in the mood today, go away." she gripped the charcoal pencil she held with so much force fracture lines began forming along the length of it. "You don't look too good today, why are you even in school? Perhaps _you_ should leave." baring her teeth at him the pencil snapped in half and Jiraiya was sure she was going to leap across the table and strangle the boy. Strangely as soon as the animalistic rage showed on her face a dull look replaced it and she smiled. "Oops. I broke the pencil. Guess I have to pack a new one tomorrow. Oh well." kakuzu looked confused at the change in attitude and left the table while watching her wearily. "Next time you decide to go temporarily insane do it in Tsunade's class, not mine." shaking his head Jiraiya left to go bother his other students. "If this happens again I better not be in school..." she murmured tiredly while her eyes gazed at the broken pencil. "Damn... I have to stop working so many days in a row it's bad for my control." With a half sigh she gathered the remains of the pencil and shoved it inside of her bag not really caring where the pieces fell. "Now that bastard kakuzu is going to be suspicious of me, this really isn't my week so far." hanging her head all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sleep. Looking up she spotted Jiraiya looking at her and groaned softly. Sleep was apparently _not_ an option. Grumbling about perverted teachers she grabbed a normal pencil out of her bag and began lightly tracing over the previously done lines. Shifting in the seat she winced when her left leg was jarred. "I need to be more careful at _work_ too. Just one more reason I should be sleeping right now...I hate school."

XxXxX

"How much do you actually know about your new friend Yae?" Kisame asked him with his sharp teeth showing from his wide lipped smile. "Hn." Kisame looked annoyed but still kept part of his smile. "You know, she's not exactly known to be talkative. At least not until you showed up, kind of strange don't you think?" he kept on talking, ignoring the fact that Itachi was not responding and possibly not even listening to him. Itachi was however listening. _'For someone who is supposed to not be talkative she sure talks a lot. Perhaps she just dose not like the rest of them enough to talk, but then why me?' _As Anko walked by she practically threw a packet of paper at Kisame who cursed at her. "You have to have all of that done by tomorrow!" Itachi watched as Kisame gaped at the woman like she had grown a second head. "Are you nuts?! There is no way in hell that's going to happen!" the purple haired teacher slammed her hands on the desk and leaned forward. "Well if you weren't such a lazy ass before you wouldn't have so much work to do now. All of that work there equals of this semester's grade so if you don't want to fail before you even take the exam you'll get it done!" Kisame grumbled about crazy bitches under his breath and shoved the packet into his binder before seemingly forgetting about it. _'What an idiot.'_ Itachi's dark eyes glanced over at the blue haired boy that sat next to him, who was currently doodling on the desk. There was something odd about the boy, something that Itachi couldn't quite place; something that made him weary of him. The same thing with the rest of the people in the boys group. Throughout the remainder of the class Kisame tried to pull Itachi into a conversation but only succeeded in making himself frustrated and Itachi inwardly amused. Itachi stood calmly as the bell rang having already gathered his things. As usual the hall was filled with boisterously loud students and couples who seemed to be locked at the hips. Silently shaking his head he left the building and headed towards his next class. Although it was a warm and sunny day outside, the lingering smell of fall littered the gradually cooling air.

Itachi tensed and shifted to the right while a tennis ball flew past his head. A startled yell was heard from the unfortunate soul who ended up being hit with it. "Damn it! I missed..." the sickening voice of Jennifer came from behind a growing crowd of students. Itachi's eyes narrowed. _'She is slowly becoming more then just irritating.'_ he felt the familiar pain behind his eyes and walked on, completely ignoring the now fuming brunette haired girl. Rubbing his eyes painfully he stumbled slightly into the main hallway; the buildings' doors closed behind with loud bang. Shaking off the pained feeling he continued on to class as though nothing had occurred. Entering the class he noticed Yae's seat was empty, looking towards the front desk Iruka's concerned eyes were fixated on him. Taking the bag from his shoulder and placing it beside his seat he hesitated before sitting. Most of the class had filtered in and it was only a few seconds before the final bell before Yae finally walked into the classroom looking no better then she had in first. A few of the students cringed at her appearance but Iruka looked relieved and motioned for her to sit down. Shrugging a shoulder Yae nodded to Itachi before taking her spot next to him. "Remind me to kill Jiraiya for not letting me sleep." with that her head banged softly into the desk; her eyes closed. With a raised eyebrow Itachi copied the days work into his notebook resolving to do it at a later date, being fully uninterested in working at the present time. With a muffled groan Yae sat up looking frustrated. "I can't sleep!" she whined softly. "I finally have a chance to sleep and my mind won't shut off!" Itachi was all to familiar with that problem. Angrily yanking her notebook from her bag along with a pen she flipped open to a new page and wrote down the board work as well as the homework for that night. "Well that took care of four seconds..." muttering a curse she seemed to remember something and flipped to a new page. "I forgot to write my dream assignment." Itachi blinked while she began tapping the pen softly against the paper in thought.

Brushing hair from her face she frowned wearily._ 'I really didn't get enough sleep, and that damn dream in first period didn't help...' _She was used to having weird dreams, funny dreams and even an occasional sexual based dream. She was not however, used to dreaming of things that had actually occurred in the past. It was bad enough they had happened but to dream them when her body needed to be resting...was almost too much. _'Over the past month it's gotten worse...' _sighing she brought the pen to the paper and started witting out an edited version of her dream for Kakashi's class. She had to be careful of what she wrote, there were certain people in the school that didn't need to hear of it. Loosing herself in the witting she didn't hear when the bell rang. "Yae." a voice that was soft and familiar called out to her.

_"Yae...you have to help the others escape. Protect the boy he's far too young to do this alone.." the mans soft voice drifted off and his eyes closed. The blood from his wounds had long since stopped flowing. She stood when the banging on the outer doors increased and splinter marks appeared. _

"Yae?"

_"Yae? What's going on?" kneeling down to the boys level she peered into his azure eyes. "You need to make a decision; leader is dead so you are now the strongest. Do we stay and fight, or do we disband the group and scatter to safety?" The sound of splintering wood filled the shocked silence in the room. "Hurry!"_

_"Leave. We need to survive to get revenge someday, don't we? We need to leave now!" the young boy with tears in his eyes ordered. The doors fell off their hinges and the rival group rushed in. _

"Yae!"

Yae blinked a few times before she seemed to really take anything in her surroundings in. "What...?" looking confused she turned to Itachi and Iruka who were standing in front of her. "You kind of zoned out. Are you OK?" Iruka asked with genuine concern. "Yeah...I'm fine...I just got caught up in a memory..." Iruka sighed in relief before shaking his head. "You should try and get more sleep if its affecting you this much." nodding her agreement she gathered her things in hand and looked to Itachi who was waiting for her. "Good thing Kakashi is never on time." nodding slowly Itachi walked to the door but waited for Yae to catch up. While he would not ask her what her memories were about Itachi's mind still lingered on the possibilities. _'The death of a loved one? A dark secret maybe...?' _resisting the urge to shake his head, Itachi walked silently beside Yae in the hallway. "Get out of my way!" someone shrieked from further down the hallway. "Isn't that your stalker Itachi?" with an inward sigh Itachi's dark eyes locked onto the brunettes angered figure from behind a group of students. Glaring at Itachi and struggling to get past the other students Jennifer screamed again. "Looks like we should go while she is otherwise occupied. I really don't want to deal with her now." grabbing Itachi's arm she slowly dragged him away from the prying eyes of a very irate brunette and curious onlookers. Finally slipping into the classroom Yae flopped onto a chair letting her bag fall to the floor. "Well, now that that's over...What did she do today?" her curiosity overtook her exhaustion for the first time that day. "What makes you think she did anything?" Itachi asked blankly but Yae could sense the underlying curiosity. "Well for one, she seems to be escalating in her PMS tantrums. Secondly there had to be a reason she was trying and failing to glare daggers into you." crossing her arms and wiggling into a more comfortable position she waited for his reply. "Nothing much, except that she tried to hit me with a tennis ball before third." Yae sat straight up in her chair so quickly Itachi was sure she had pulled something. "What?! She already threw something at you?" her gold eyes were wide and her hood had fallen back limply against her shoulders. "What do you mean 'already'?" yawning softly behind her hand Yae returned to her previously relaxed position. "Well...when I said that no one ignores her there is a good reason. Back in sophomore year she was dating some guy on the football team for like 4 months before he started to ignore her to do more stuff with his friends and the team. She being who she is didn't like that so she publicly warned him that she didn't like to be ignored blah blah blah." catching her breath a small smile appeared on her otherwise blank face. "Naturally the guy didn't listen, and she started to 'stalk' him. She followed him everywhere and after two weeks things began to escalate, like throwing things, getting him into detention and all that. However around a month after she had made her threat he was found at the bottom of building 4's second story stairwell, they say that there was no way he could have fallen. That someone had to have pushed him." Pulling her hood up so that it rested just before her eyes she continued. "There is no evidence that she did it, but everyone knows that crazy bitch did it. So everyone just started to follow everything she said and she is never ignored now. Basically you're going to have a thorn in your side until you graduate or die." with a wide smirk Yae watched Itachi frown before turning her attention to their late teacher.

"How is my least favorite class today?" the lazy silver haired man greeted them while smiling. "Why are we your least favorite class!?" someone in the back yelled. Raising a hand in the air Yae spoke calmly "That would be because of me since I filled in the stragglers to the fact that Kakashi and Iruka are going at it like bunnies." puttering her hand back down she bit her lip to keep in a laugh while her teachers glare rested on her back. "I hate you." a few of the girls in front giggled at such a statement from their teacher. "Really? That's nice." Yae replied in monotone. "Getting back to your assignments now, how about you go first Andrea?" one of the girls who had laughed stood up nervously clutching a sheet of paper. "Last night I dreamed that I was flying through the night sky..." someone yelled _'that's original'_ making the girl blush in embarrassment. "Now, now. We can't control what we dream. Please continue." Kakashi was clearly smiling though no one could see it. "It was very dark out and the air was freezing as though it had just rained. Suddenly a giant flower pot flew in front of me with a giant yellow flower with teeth inside. It opened its mouth and went to bite me...That's where I woke up." sitting down she blushed as some of the others laughed at her dream. Yae shook her head and chose to ignore the next name called out, instead pulling out her headphones. Catching Itachi's attention she waved a single ear piece in front of his face for a few seconds before he took it from her. Smiling she closed her eyes and turned on the music. The tunes were more of a soft J-rock then her usual more upbeat tunes. "I'm too tired to listen to anything else today, be thankful I'm not into that 'emo' music." letting her head fall back onto the chair she proceeded to ignore the rest of the world and relax. If she couldn't sleep then she could at least do nothing to deplete her already dwindling energy reserves. _'I have to be more careful in school, I can't just keep zoning out every time I dream something...' _She was once again thankful she had pulled her hood over her face for it hid her darkening expression rather well. _'I wonder how he's doing... He's got to be around nine or ten by now...' _Her gold eyes snapped open and she sat up to look at Kakashi who had just stopped next to her. "And here I thought you weren't paying attention." Both Yae and Itachi fished their completed dream assignments from their respective bags and handed them in to Kakashi. "We should pack up if Kakashi is already collecting that crap." With a small nod from Itachi they packed up what little they had previously taken out and just as Yae stood up the bell rang. "At least I won't mind being awake this time. Food is always good." the pair walked out into the hallway and somehow managed to escape most of the crowd making it to the rooftop in record time.

The strange thing was when walking across the rooftop to their normal seating area, the other group of boys up there were staring intently at them. Now that in itself wasn't all that strange. Yae had never been a favorite of that group considering their history with each other. The problem was that not only were they staring as they walked past, they were whispering. In all the time Yae had the unpleasant experience of knowing them, they didn't do anything secretive. _(Not to mention a few of their members couldn't be quiet if their life depended on it) _Especially if it concerned her. _(Kisame loved to annoy her) _Her curiosity peaked when they suddenly stopped talking as they noticed she was watching them._ 'Now what is all that about?' _Sitting down on the edge of the building she pulled out her lunch and began eating. Halfway through her meal she stopped mid bite. _'The incident with kakuzu this morning...Shimatta! That's what this is about.' _with a silent curse she glanced over at the group of boys only to find them quickly look away. _'This is just perfect...'_ not feeling the least bit hungry anymore she packed up the food and sat quietly while Itachi finished. The warm morning air had grown cool and had a chill to it making the soft breezes uncomfortable. Shivering with her long sleeved hoodie on she wondered how Itachi seemed to be unaffected while wearing only a t-shirt. Zoning out she barely registered when the bell rang. "That's the third one I've missed today." Lifting herself off the ground she followed Itachi off the rooftop and down the steps, completely ignoring the looks she was receiving in the process. "Sorry I'm not exactly good company today. I'll see you next period assuming I don't miss the bell." leaving Itachi to go to art she made her way to Anko's class. _'Really what is with me today? Even with lack of sleep I shouldn't be this zoned out.'_ with her thoughts in a twist she missed the mess of dark brown hair dodging from her line of sight, something she normally would have seen. Idly her fingers began to play with the end of her sleeves, it was something she had done even as a child when her mind was preoccupied. It was something that no amount of training or mental will had gotten rid of. With a hefty sigh she spied the sign above Anko's class and stepped through the doorway. Even after all this time she still didn't know the room number, just the way to get to the room. Sliding into her seat in the back she flung her bag to the ground not really caring where it landed. "You brats will be doing another worksheet today and I don't care if you don't _'feel like it'_ or not!" her purple haired teacher yelled form the front of the class. Taking a stack of papers she practically threw them at the students in the front row and told them to pass them along. Yae Looked at the sheet of paper that she was expected to complete and looked at her headphones; she decided the work could wait. Pulling the hood more securely over her face she turned on the CD player and put on her headphones. Anko who had been watching let out a small smirk _(which scared her other students)_ and left Yae to get some rest, she hadn't looked all that good when she had walked into class that day. With one student sleeping and the others scared into quietness she really had nothing left to do that class period.

XxXxXx

Itachi on the other hand was diligently working on smoothing out the cracks that had formed in his clay _'weasel'. _He was however not able to ignore all of the looks he was receiving from his tablemates. Glancing up he caught Deidara's eye who looked shocked at being caught staring. Laughing lightly Deidara's face twisted into a grin. "Oh well, might as well tell you, un." Glancing at Sasori the blond continued to talk. "Your friend Yae actually piqued Kakuzu's curiosity today and that's not easily done since he's only obsessed with money, un!" Deidara's speech was cut off by a scream form across the room. "Get away from here you mask wearing freak! God!" a loud whine of _'but I'm a good boy'_ was heard before the sound of something crashing into the wall. All eyes were on the crumpled form of Tobi who was now leaning heavily against the wall while his legs were piled beneath him. "Oww!" Sasori turned back to his puppets without a second thought while the blond merely shook his head. "Anyway, in second Kakuzu was up to his almost daily game of annoying _'Yae until she gets angry'_. But today she snapped and kakuzu says _'literally snapped', _un." Dark eyes looked up from a pile of clay and Deidara inwardly smirked. "She had actually snapped a pencil in two and looked like she was going to lunge across the table and stab him. Then...she just got this weird look in her eyes and laughed saying something like _'whoops I guess I need a new one.' _Seriously that is a little psycho if you ask me, un!" molding a new bird out of his squashed clay he proceed to place the details on it. "It could just be that kakuzu annoyed her on the day after she didn't get much sleep." going back to his clay work Itachi missed the slightly disappointed look Deidara gave him, as if he had been expecting a bigger reaction. _'It seems as though they are trying to give me reasons to get away from her. With this in mind, what is their reasoning for doing so?'_ focusing so intently on his thoughts he missed Tobi's less then triumphant return. "Itachi!" the masked boy yelled before latching onto his side. The entire table went silent, even Sasori stopped tinkering with his puppets. Itachi blinked then turned his emotionless gaze on Tobi. "Tobi get off of him now!" Deidara yelled from across the table. Glaring at the masked boy the blond tugged him off of Itachi before he decided to kill them all for disturbing him; he just had that vibe that said _'touch me and die'. _Tobi had practically mauled him. _'My eyes hurt again, why?' _Resisting the urge to rub them he returned to his clay again. Deidara had made Tobi (_who was now happily playing with clay)_ sit between himself and Sasori. _'Perhaps I should see if there is an empty table tomorrow...' _with that thought in mind he made sure to ignore any and all other attempts to pull him into a conversation. Surprisingly enough Jariyah hadn't bothered him _(or the rest of the table) _the entire class period leaving him free to finish his clay weasel in relative peace. By the time the bell rang Itachi had been patiently waiting for it for over five minutes. After finally weaving his way through the crowd of people _(who Itachi was beginning to believe were all idiots)_ and exiting the building he was surprised to find Yae waiting for him. She smiled slightly. "Anko let me out early to deliver some paperwork to the principle." her eerie gold eyes looked up at him from the dark confines of her hood. With Yae leading the way the pair was silent while watching for Jennifer who seemed to like to appear in crowds.

Walking up to the gymnasium doors Yae noticed a large white sign on it and read it aloud once Itachi was with her. "My youthful students go to the locker rooms and prepare for the wondrous event of swimming! -GAI" Yae took one look at Itachi and burst out laughing. "That's right you have to go swimming!" Itachi pointedly ignored her in favor of walking into the building. Still laughing, quietly this time, Yae followed him and allowed the door to close slowly behind her. The entire gym was deserted and had it not been for the sign one might have thought class was canceled. Their footsteps echoed loudly in the large empty room. "To think, if we had been in Asuma-sensei's class this is how quiet it could have been all the time..." reaching the stairs they walked silently down them and came face to face with the two separate locker rooms.

"Looks like they switched the signs again. You have to go into the 'girls' one." Yae smirked without any real enthusiasm while trying to cover up a yawn. "Do you remember where the pool is?" Itachi nodded and headed off to the 'girls' changing rooms to prepare for torture...or rather the swimming lesson Gai was doing. Yae paid the changing rooms no mind and headed off to the pool area. Upon entering she found that it was even warmer then the actual gymnasium. The air felt like a hot, humid summer day. Yae hated summer weather. The smell in the room wasn't all that great either, a cross somewhere between a wet dog and body oder. It wasn't very appealing. The room itself was rather large, but in no way as large as the room upstairs. The pool was fairly big but more long then wide, starting from one side of the room and ending nearly at the other end. "People must love doing laps in this pool." taking a look around Yae noted with satisfaction that there was a row of bleachers for people not participating to sit down on. Having nothing to do until the others assembled she sat down on the nearest section of bleacher seats and waited for the rest of the class. The walls were painted a sea green and were bordered by what looked like a dark green tile with white caulk separating them. The floors themselves were made of a dark gray substance that was abrasive to the skin, it was not a smart idea to run in this place. Draping her arms across her knees Yae watched curiously as the female students filtered in wearing their bathing suits but having them covered with towels. "Like those are going to stay on long. Why do they even bother?" shaking her head Gai ran into the room and struck a pose leaving most of the students to stare strangely at him. "ONCE EVERYONE IS HERE I WANT ALL OF YOU TO GATHER IN THE SHALLOW END OF THE POOL!" his boisterous voice bounced off the pool walls and echoed louder then normal. Some of the girls were already getting into the pool so that the boys couldn't watch them. "Eww! The water is warm and it feels kinda heavy..." for the second time that day Yae was happy to not have to swim. With a sigh she heaved herself off the seats and walked over to her freakishly happy teacher. "Gai-sensei." she mumbled quietly not really wanting to grab his attention but knowing she needed to. Spinning in place he turned to face her with a wide smile. Pulling the folded note out of her pocket Yae handed him her swimming pass. "So the principle did write you a note. Since your grade is an A+ in here I'm going to allow you to just watch rather then do extra work. The lesson is about to start so go sit back down." his quiet voice left the moment he turned back away from her. "Sometimes I wonder if you are bi-polar sensei..."she mumbled while walking away. Sitting back down she had to fight to keep her eyes open due to the warmth of the room. When the boys walked into the room things became so quiet Yae was sure that you could hear a pin drop. Looking at one person in particular she could understand why. Clad only in a pair of simple black swim trunks and showing a lot of pale skin, Itachi looked gorgeous. "Well damn." she whispered softly. All the girls broke out in deep blushes and began murmuring softly to each other. "ALL RIGHT EVERYONE INTO THE POOL!" the poor unfortunate souls that were closest to Gai were scared the moment he began talking, or rather yelling. A few of the boys dove into the water while the others got in more calmly. "TODAY'S LESSON WILL BE MOSTLY TO MAKE SURE ALL OF YOU CAN SWIM, AND FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T SWIM TO LEARN HOW TO. LEE SHOW THEM ALL WHAT THEY WILL BE DOING!" Lee saluted. "YES! YOU WILL ALL SWIM FROM ONE END OF THE SHALLOW END TO THE OTHER LIKE THIS!" with a yell Lee began swimming and in only a few seconds was back again. "NOW THAT LEE HAS SHOWN YOU WHAT TO DO LET YOUR YOUTHULL SPIRITS SOAR!" most of the students grumbled while a few looked embarrassed marking them as the ones who couldn't swim. Once those few had been put into a small group to be taught by Lee the others were told to do laps or even play a game as long as it was in the pool and they were not bothering those who were learning.

Itachi had chosen to do laps and had been staying as far away from the others as he possibly could, taking to swimming in the deep end that most of the others wouldn't go near. "Kami this is boring..." with one elbow propped up on her knee holding her head up and the other draped across her lap she watched the swimmers disinterestedly. "Even Itachi is boring me right now, can't he do something other then laps?" cursing her luck of teachers once again she closed her eyes and decided wait out the class like that. Itachi on the other hand had no choice but to pay attention to what he was doing. _'This is pointless.' _But as pointless as he thought it was it was something he could not get out of, and seeing as he needed all passing grades he would have to suffer through it. Glancing over to the bleachers that were only a few feet away it appeared that Yae was sleeping in her hunched over position. _'What could she be hiding besides those scars on her wrist to make her adamant about not swimming?'_ A loud whistle blew and everyones attention moved back to their teacher. "THE BELL WILL RING IN ONLY A FEW MINUTES SO CLASS WILL END HERE! EVERY WEDSNDAY WE WILL BE HERE FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR, ISN'T THAT GREAT?!" a few of the students moaned in disbelief while the others actually cheered. Swimming over to the side of the pool and using the small arched handles Itachi pulled himself from the overly warm water and stood silently dripping on the concrete like floor. His long dark hair had fallen free of its hair tie and currently fell in damp clumps around his face and back. Calmly he walked around the edge of the pool and headed towards the door all the while ignoring all the hungry looks that were sent his way by both male and female alike. _'I truly am beginning to dislike this class.'_ He heard Yae's laughter and glared at her before retreating to the boys locker rooms. Yae covered her mouth when the other students began to look at her. _'I actually got him to glare at me! He must not be happy about swimming, and from the look of the water I don't think I'd be all that happy either, besides the fact that I wouldn't be in there in the first place.'_ Stretching her arms above her head she picked up her bag and carefully walked out of the pool room and went to stand outside of the locker rooms. In less then five minutes Itachi was out of the locker rooms with an almost sour expression on his face.

"Your shirt is getting wet." Yae said after noticing his dripping hair. Ignoring her he started walking up the small amount of steps to the upper floor just as the bell rang. A chorus of screams came from the locker rooms from students who would undoubtedly be late to class. "Shit if we're not careful we will be late too.." hobbling up the stairs she caught up to Itachi and the two quickly crossed the oversized gymnasium and rushed to class. They made it in the door a second after the bell. "You two are late. However, I happen to know that you were swimming today so I will let it slide." with a sigh of relief Yae sent a grateful smile Tsunade's way before sitting down in her chair. Rubbing her leg she cringed. "Damn those stairs are murder." she mumbled when Itachi questioned her. "Alright class now that everyone important is here _(she glanced at Hidan's empty seat)_ the lesson will begin. Today you will be doing a test on what you know so I can help everyone review for the upcoming mid-terms. It will take the entire class to complete. Once I hand them out you may begin." with a heavy sigh Yae fished out a pencil and a sheet of paper she could draw on after she was done with the test, or rather a quiz. Tsunade just liked to make things out to be bigger then they actually were; although if her reaction to telling the class about the project was anything to go by, they were doomed. Staring at the small packet, once Tsunade gave her one, she absently commented that normal people wouldn't be able to complete that in one class period prompting Tsunade to state they weren't 'normal'. With a smirk Yae began her test only to look on in boredom moments later at the questions. _'Seriously, this is an ANBU question? The standards must have really dropped since I started school...' _with a frown she answered _'what is the process of photosynthesis'_ in a paragraph using big words, hoping that it would somehow piss Tsunade off. Finishing the test in just over twenty minutes she contemplated raising her hand and asking for help just because she was bored but decided against it as it would either make her look stupid or immature; neither were appealing seeing as she didn't even need help in the first place. Glancing over at Itachi she found him to already be done. '_I wonder when he got done?' _shoving the packet to the edge of the desk she busied herself with drawing until Tsunade announced that it was time to hand them in and she would let them leave before the bell. Standing up immediately Yae shouldered her bag and grabbed the small packet. "I'll see you tomorrow, my leg is killing me so I need that head start." with a small smile she handed in the packet to Tsunade and left the classroom. Itachi took his time collecting his things before he too handed in the packet and went on his way.

Walking home had been hell on her leg and she barely made it up to her apartment before it gave out. Sitting just outside of her apartment she sighed. "Really? Well this just sucks. It like my apartment is taunting me. "I'm not even a foot away and you still can't get in!' Ahh!" she yelled in frustration and began to massage her leg ignoring the pulsating pain it caused. "I really need to be more careful. If this had happened at school..." resting her head against the door she closed her eyes and waited a few moments before trying to get back up using the railing in front of her. The muscles in her bad leg trembled violently as she pulled herself into a standing position. With a shaky breath she was able to turn around to face her front door. Slightly dragging her leg she unlocked the door and made her way inside. Throwing her bag down to the ground and tossing the keys onto the table she used the wall to help her get to the bathroom. Opening the cabinet she pulled out a bottle of prescription pain medication and popped two into her mouth and dry swallowed them. "I'm going to have to wear my brace tomorrow if it doesn't get better..." shaking her head she clumsily stumbled into her bedroom and flopped onto the bed. Sitting up she kicked off her shoes and pulled off her hoodie leaving her in pants and a t-shirt. "Good enough I guess." reaching over to her alarm and setting it to go off forty minutes before school started she laid back down on her bed and rolled over. "I don't even care if they call I'm not working tonight...way to tired..." with a yawn she closed her eyes and within seconds was soundly sleeping.

XxXxXx

After getting picked up by his cousin again and being dropped off at the front gates of his home Itachi quietly walked to his room without being noticed by his mother or younger brother. Placing his things by his bed and washing his hands in the bathroom he entered the kitchen. "Aniki when did you get home!" Sasuke yelled around his juice box. "Just now." Sitting down beside his brother Itachi accepted the tea from his mother with a nod. It was sort of a ritual that had started once Sasuke had been born. Everyday around two thirty Mikoto would always be in the kitchen making Sasuke a bottle_ (and in later years a snack) _and Itachi would quietly sit with them and drink tea. Although his mother never said anything he knew she enjoyed the three of them having some time together before Fugaku returned from work. Things were always tense after that. "Aniki can we play again today?" Sasuke looked up at his older sibling with wide eyes. "I'm sure Itachi has a lot of work to do tonight, yesterday will have to hold you off for a while." Mikoto said with a small smile. _'In other words, father won't be late tonight.' _Itachi's frown went unnoticed behind the cup of tea but he was certain his mother knew about it anyway. "Thank you for the tea; I will be going to complete my homework. Otouto make sure to do your own work as well." Itachi looked away as Sasuke's smile fell from his face. "Sure, aniki." Leaving the small table he retreated into his room where he would complete all of his work, if only to keep up appearances. A little while later his father walked into the room telling him to come eat dinner; he seemed to have a pleased aura around him after watching Itachi studying for awhile. Dinner was a tense affair that night, the only one seemingly unaffected was Fugaku who was calmly talking about the business deals he had completed during his day.

Sasuke pushed his food around his plate until he was reminded to eat everything on it or he would not be eating any snacks in the next few days. Mikoto looked nervously at her husband a few times during the encounter before staring into her drink. Finishing his meal and politely refusing desert he excused himself on the promise of studying a little more before turning in for the night. Quickly leaving the larger dinning room table he felt a pair of eyes on his back and wondered what it was about._ 'Study study study. That is all he wants me to do. As if getting the best grades is going to help me take of his business. Not that I want too, not that it matters.' _with a resigned sigh he let his thoughts wander while anyone who may have been watching him would think he was in deep concentration at his set tasks. A little after ten Itachi finally closed his books and turned off his lights. Opening the door he quietly made his way to the kitchen and drank a glass of water before heading back to his room. On the way there as he was passing by the office raised voices stopped him in his path. "Are you certain we can't just send him away? Do we really have to...have to..." Mikoto trailed off while brushing away tears. "You know as well as I do that he would not accept that and would end up going after him. No, this is what needs to be done. Be strong Mikoto, you have your own part to play as you know." With narrowed eyes Itachi silently crept away from the closed doors making sure to avoid the loose floorboards. Once safely in his room Itachi allowed himself to think on what he had overheard. _'What did they mean 'It needs to be done'? And who is it they were talking about...?'_ Sitting on his bed in the dark Itachi knew he would be getting no sleep that night.

XxXxXx

**PART 2 **_**(This part of the chapter will NOT be following my usual format for this fic, simply because I have no use to drag out these two days seeing as nothing 'major' happens in it other then some explanations...Well OK that's a lie. but seriously did you really want me to go into 2 more school days in detail? (Although something tells me that my muse is going to be evil and will find a way to make them around the same length...but I will TRY to make them shorter...-Fends off Muse-) OK I think I've talked enough now... on to chapter 3 part 2!)** _

For Yae, morning came far too soon in her opinion. The sun hadn't even risen that early in the morning, yet she had to go to school. She still had yet to figure out why she even needed to go, she knew practically everything they were teaching her thanks to an old friend that had once taken the time to teach her. Not that she was really going to complain, she valued that persons wisdom over any bouts of boredom she might have to endure because of it. She was sure that she would have turned out differently had it not been for him. Yawning and stretching like a cat she crawled out of bed before cautiously testing her leg. "Thank kami!" It seemed that luck had decided to be her friend that day as she didn't feel any weakness in her leg other then residual soreness. "Maybe all I really needed was rest. I must have overworked myself. Not hard to do considering my line of work..." with a less then joyous smirk she continued on with her normal morning routine of dressing and grabbing a quick breakfast before walking to school; which was the entire reason she got up early. About halfway to the school the dark sky had finally lightened and the sun had risen into the sky. "Finally I can see something!" while her night vision used to be the one time she could see everything clearly; ever since _'that' _day it had deteriorated to the point where making anything out in detail was hard to do. Finally coming across the schools large gates she entered the walkway only to see a group of students gathered around what sounded like an argument. Upon closer examination it was a one way argument. "I will get you back! I will. Mark my words you will rue the day you chose to ignore me!" Yae could make out the brown hair and the voice long before she could actually see Jennifer's face. "Jennifer, consider them 'marked'. Now go the hell away, it's far too damn early in the morning to deal with your shit." speaking without really thinking had always been a problem of Yae's; one that apparently had yet to be fixed. With a gasp Jennifer pointed at Yae in complete and utter shock. "YOU!-" with a sigh Yae grabbed Itachi's arm and dragged him away from the rather large gathering of students. "Well that went well." she stated sarcastically as they both heard Jennifer yelling back at them. "I was going to walk off in a few moments, there was no need for you to interfere-" stopping she dropped Itachi's arm. "Really she just needed to shut up, besides it will take away some of the attention she has fixated on you, especially since she already hates me." with a small smile she motioned for him to follow her to class, saying nothing Itachi complied. Kabuto greeted them as they walked in the doorway but his appearance made Yae stop short. His right arm was in a bulky white cast that extended from his elbow down to this thumb along with dark bruises in the shape of what looked like fingerprints were strewn across his pale neck. _'It was him the other night! Then that means he and Orochimaru-'_ her thoughts were cut short when Orochimaru stalked into the classroom nearly bumping into her. "Everyone in your seats now!" there was something in the tone of his voice that day that made everyone rush to get to their seats, including Yae. "What was that all about..." she questioned quietly. Sitting down she found his eyes glued to her with anger etched across his features. _'He must know, or at least have an idea that I am the 'Ame' agent from the other day. This week just keeps getting worse...' _Seeing the slight worry on her face Itachi wondered if it had anything to do with the foul mood Orochimaru was currently in. "Yae Sakimotto I need to speak with you after class." Orochimaru's stern voice flowed over the silent classroom like liquid acid. Cringing Yae nodded deciding after only a moment not to voice her answer. _'This day is starting to suck...' _

"Now, for today's assignments-" the rest of the class was carried on in a normal manner with Orochimaru proving just how much he loved to hear himself speak. "Do you have any idea what he wants to speak with you about?" Itachi finally asked only a few minutes before the end of class. "Not really, but he sounded irritated. I'll tell you later if it's something important." Itachi nodded before turning back to watch the clock above the door. Things were certainly turning out to be interesting in this new school. The entire class period had been rather boring after the unexpected announcement in the beginning, and yet Itachi couldn't keep himself focused on the 'lecture'.He supposed he could miss an entire years worth of Orochimaru's speeches and still pass with the top marks. When the bell rang Itachi watched Yae sit there with an unreadable expression on her face. "Go or you'll be late for class, I will see you in third. I'm sure Iruka-sensei would have a heart attack if I wasn't in class so I'll be there." her hands made shooing motions and with an inward sigh Itachi left for Anko's class. Now while he didn't exactly mind her class it was the blue haired shark-like boy that he didn't like to deal with. He was an incessant talker and wouldn't shut up even if you told him to. And Itachi was sure yesterdays incident with the pencil would make its way into their one sided conversation even though Itachi didn't think it was very much to worry over. Walking into the classroom Itachi was slightly surprised to see Anko already there, usually the purple haired teacher came just as the bell was ringing or only a little before. "Itachi." Anko called to him. Walking over to the large desk she was seated behind _(and not on for once) _he stood silently while quirking an eyebrow. "Here. These are all the papers for the rest of the semester along with some extra things to prove you know the material. The little extras were suggested by the principle not me." nodding Itachi took the packet of worksheets. "Your grades are actually better then Yae's which is the only reason I'm giving you this semester's work. Yae isn't going to like the fact that she isn't the best in all of my classes anymore, but then again she can be lazy so she probably won't care. Now get out of my sight." Anko mock glared at him and sent him over to his seat. _'This entire school is insane.'_ shuffling the papers and placing them neatly into a black binder he kept out that weeks worth of worksheets. _'Yae was the best in all of Anko's classes? Considering all of the students are ANBU level that is not something easy. Yet she pays less attention to the lessons then I an starting to.' _Deciding that it was better to appear busy before Kisame got to class, Itachi started on the first worksheet. All of the work was relatively easy for him to complete so it wasn't until he was on the fifth one that he realized that Kisame wasn't in class yet. _'I finally have class without him and I fail to notice until it's time to leave...'_ withholding a sigh Itachi stared at the completed work. He had the same problem no matter what he was doing.

Everything was too easy. With everything previously packed away Itachi left his seat and walked to the front of the room with the completed work. He could feel the eyes of the class on him. _'They should really take Anko less seriously. It's not as though she would actually hurt them...'_ Anko's narrowed eyes watched as Itachi placed the papers on her desk. "Both of you are troublesome. Giving me more work..." She glared at the speaker as the sound of the bell rang throughout the classroom. "Get the hell out of my class!" she growled at them. Most of the students stumbled out of their seats, bumping into one another in their haste to leave. Itachi walked out of the classroom calmly and ignored the craziness of the other students. Sadly the students in the hallways were little better. Per usual they gathered in packs and chattered idly while waiting for the warning bell before they would even think about dispersing themselves. Calmly trying to weave in and around the idle bodies in the hallway Itachi barely made it to third on time. Finally out of the insanely packed hallway Itachi slowed his pace before stopping completely at his desk and seating himself before turning to Yae. Seeing Itachi stare intently at her she blinked in confusion. "What- oh!" smacking herself in the forehead Yae crossed her arms with a small smile. "Well nothing really happened. Just roachi-sensei being his usual self and telling me how much he hates me and blah blah blah. Oh, but he did tell me to stay away from you." Yae hoped that Itachi wouldn't want exact details, she didn't want to lie if she could help it. As it was she was leaving a few things out of her story to Itachi, but then again she only told him she would tell him if something important happened. The missing pieces in her story were not important to Itachi, only to herself.

_-Flashback-_

_Standing before Orochimaru's desk she watched out of the corner of her eye as Kabuto quietly closed and locked the classroom door. "So Roachi, what did you want to speak with me about?" she let a hint of amusement show on her face as she called him 'roachi'. His lips twisted into a snarl and he slammed her into the wall. "You know damn well what I wanted to talk about." he glanced over at Kabuto who was fiddling with his cast ever so slightly. "So, Kabuto-san? But what about him?" she asked innocently making sure to show confusion. "He was gathering information from an Ame spy a day ago when the spy turned on him. You are that spy." her eyes widened. "What the hell are you talking about?! You really have lost it haven't you! Ame? Seriously, that's a fucking school!" inwardly she was commending her acting abilities when a slight look of doubt flashed through his eyes. Yae started to struggle against his grip but was only rewarded with his hand pushing her harder against the wall. "You have very deceitful eyes, I can't tell if you are lying to me now or not."_

_"Remember that she is a trained spy like I am so it wouldn't be hard to fake emotions." he shifted uncomfortably before sitting on a chair. 'Looks like I injured him pretty good.' a smirk spread across her face before she stop it and she knew that Orochimaru had seen it. "Haha, OK I get it. This is a joke right? Getting me back for embarrassing you in class all those times? Great, now you can let me go before I decide to get your ugly ass fired." she stated sarcastically. 'Please tell me I was able to play that off, it's better that they don't have anything against me...' she Looked to Kabuto who sighed in response but stood back up. "The next class will be in here very soon. We can't prove anything at the moment anyway..." _

_Orochimaru leaned in closer to her to the point where Yae tried to turn her head away. "We may not have definitive proof at the moment, but rest assured we know it is you. And you would do good to stay far away from the Uchiha boy as well." he pulled his hands away from her and let her slide to the floor. "You may leave now. I have a class to teach."_

_-End Flashback- _

Yae watched as Itachi seemed to be thinking over what she had told him. _'Why would he tell her to stay away from me? I have a feeling the one I should be staying away from is Orochimaru himself. And Kabuto as well. He seems very close to him.' _with those thoughts in mind Itachi turned back to Yae who he found working on what appeared to be the finishing touches of the ninja drawing. "So how do you like it? Mind you this is just the small version of it. The one we need for Jiraiya's class will be the size of the entire canvas." The entire drawing was in black and white, the only medium used was a coal pencil. The picture itself was of a short haired ninja holding up a piece of paper against a giant fox demon with nine tails. Where Yae got the idea to draw that Itachi would probably never know. "Now that this is done I can have it roughly sketched out on the canvas in about a day. That leaves us with the problem of actually getting together after school to work on it." turning to look directly at Itachi she spoke. "When and where exactly can we work on this?" Itachi narrowed his eyes slightly. "I will speak with my mother tonight and find out. Since it is for school I don't perceive a problem." nodding Yae turned her attention to the front of the class and smiled at Iruka who shook his head at being interrupted again. With Iruka paying more attention to her area Yae whispered quietly to Itachi. "Remind me when we get to Kakashi's to tell you about the art fair." Iruka looked back at the two only to see them listening intently to what he was saying. Somehow not quite believing them he frowned but continued on with his lecture. _'He's very observant for a teacher...I wonder if I've _met_ him outside of school?' _Yae rested her chin on her left hand and allowed Iruka's words to go in one ear and out the other_. 'Things keep getting more complicated...Damn roach...'_ with that thought in mind she zoned out for the rest of the class. Itachi who was seated next to Yae was having similar thoughts, only his were centered on his lack of sleep from the night before. After worrying over the things he had overheard he had finally fallen asleep early in the morning however, what sleep he had been able to get had been interrupted by a dream of all things. But it was the content of the dream that bothered him, or rather the absurdity of it. The dream had started off in a dark school hallway where he could only make out the occasional shadow. As 'he' had started walking towards one of the exits thats when the dream turned weird. Yae, who looked like she had been run over by a truck, had started chasing him while holding a broken charcoal pencil. The dream had continued on like that until he had 'fallen' through the floor and woken up. He had wondered if it really had been a dream; he felt as though he _had_ spent the entire night running around. Stifling a yawn as the bell to fourth period rang Itachi wordlessly followed Yae to Kakashi's class at a sedate pace. As Yae had said numerous times, it was pointless to hurry to Kakashi's class since he was never on time either. "Has Jennifer bothered you today yet?" Yae asked curiously as they set their things on the computer tables and settled into the uncomfortable chairs. "No." Itachi watched as Yae frowned silently with his answer. "Be careful over the next few days. While she may not be the most coordinated or clever person, she can be surprising at times." glancing at him as she pulled her notebook free of her bags confines she smiled. "Yet somehow I don't think she could actually do anything to you." with a shrug of her shoulder she looked surprised as Kakashi walked through the classroom door. He was whistling and although you couldn't see his face, the stretching of the fabric told of the hidden smile on his face. "You're actually on time!?" someone yelled. "And you don't look like you skipped sleep for a year either..." another one added in. "That's because he 'got some'. Simple as that." Yae said with a toothy smile. "Oh...Eww!" a girl somewhere in the class yelled. The whistling stopped as Kakashi glowered at Yae. "And there goes my good mood..."

"Don't let me ruin your 'afterglow', go back to whistling." a few other students, mostly the boys, snickered at her statement. Kakashi ran a hand through his silver hair and sighed dramatically. "As much as I think this is a very, very bad idea. I'm going to make you stay here during lunch and help me grade papers." Yae pouted but then smirked devilishly making Kakashi cringe. "Are you sure you want me here during lunch? Wouldn't you rather be somewhere else?" she raised an eyebrow in a suggestive manner. "Yes I would rather be anywhere then near you, but sadly the paperwork has to get done..." Kakashi muttered afterwards under his breath that sounded suspiciously like 'that and Iruka said he'd take away my porn if I didn't hand it in soon'. Hanging her head in defeat Yae conceded. "Fine, I'll grace you with my awesome presence and grade those dusty sheets of paper with you during lunch." turning to Itachi she gave him a lopsided smile. "Looks like you're on your own for lunch today. Sorry!" Kakashi cleared his throat and tried to look like he was interested in what he was saying. "Today instead of reading your dreams out load I have another assignment for you today." that quickly grabbed the classes attention. "You will be writing a small paragraph about what you did after school yesterday and handing it in when the bell rings." with the important part of his teaching finished he pulled out "Icha Icha Tactics" from the underside of his desk and began reading. "Well isn't this interesting?" Itachi heard Yae mutter darkly before she roughly tore open her notebook_. 'That is an odd reaction to the assignment. As for mine, I will have to leave out a few things.'_ as Itachi's neat handwriting began to fill the page Yae bit the tip of her pen. _'Well I'm not about to put that I collapsed in front of my apartment because of a wound an Oto operative gave me...I could just say I was tired from not sleeping the day before and slept.' _with that thought in mind Yae started to write in slightly sloppy lettering making sure the words were bigger then they needed to be and spaced further apart. _'Hehe. Takes care of having to write a whole bunch. And I don't think ero-sensei will really care, he's too wrapped up in his little book of porn.'_ the entire class was quiet for the rest of the period with the exception of the scratching of pens and pencils on paper and the occasional sound of an eraser; and Yae, who was quietly explaining the art fair to Itachi. When the bell did finally ring Yae and Itachi had long since finished their paragraphs and were the first two to hand them in along with their dream assignments. "I guess I'll see you in fifth?" Itachi said nothing but sat back down and pulled out his lunch. Yae smiled and did the same but walked over to Kakashi who had pointed at a chair next to his desk and a pile of papers in front. "If you are staying here too then you can help as well Itachi." Kakashi stated with glee. With two of his students helping the paper work was sure to disappear quickly!

Yae smiled apologetically for getting Itachi into the paperwork only to be ignored. Taking the grading pen she poked Itachi in the arm with it only to appear to be innocently eating and working at the same time. She managed to get away with it a few more times before Itachi caught her hand with a glare. Kakashi watched his students with barely disguised amusement. It was mostly a quiet affair with the exception of a few traded insults from Yae and Kakashi. To Kakashi's great disappointment his paperwork did not disappear from his desk, though it was greatly diminished from it previous towering stacks. "You can leave today's handed in assignments alone, no need for you to grade your own work after all." Kakashi winked at Yae and she stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm not going to cheat! Have a little more faith Ero-sensei!" Kakashi could have sworn he saw a smirk on the quiet Uchiha's face but the second he looked back it was gone. Shaking his head the silver haired ANBU teacher looked at the time with a sigh. There would be no more disappearing paper work today. "The bell is going to ring in a few moments so I guess you guys can leave now." Yae laughed at his _(from what she could tell) _sour expression. "Maybe if you did the work when you were supposed to it wouldn't pile up like this, your almost as bad as Tsunade!" collecting her things Yae mentally counted down until the bell rang just as she said zero. "Anytime you two want to come and help me with paperwork I'd be more then happy to let you in." Kakashi said just a little more then hopefully. "Sure, sure Ero-sensei. I'll see you in sixth Itachi!" Yae called out before quickly leaving the room. Itachi walked out slowly after her and headed in a different direction. While lunch had not been completely relaxing it had probably been better then sitting on the roof with the group of people staring at them from the other side. The air had more of a chill to it then it had earlier and Itachi wondered just how long before snow would appear; it was already strange enough that the warm weather had lasted this far into the season. Upon entering the classroom and seating himself he noted how Jiraiya was standing at the front of the class waiting for the bell to ring. When he saw that most, if not all, of his students had arrived he began speaking.

"Before anyone decides to go get their projects I have to speak with you about your other project." the entire class was silent now, their undivided attention on Jiraiya for once. "You already know about the mid-term project. However I'm going to talk about what's going to happen after the projects have been handed in." scratching his head he seemed to loose his train of thoughts for a moment. "I told you about the art fair that your projects will be featured in, but I merely skimmed the details of it." hearing the groans from his class Jiraiya laughed. "It is a three night event, you are required to attend only one of those nights and later I will be passing around the clip board for you to add your name. However, there are a set amount of spaces per night. So in other words, there will be an equal amount of students attending each night. So no, you all can't go the last night." some of the students grumbled at that while others looked ready to run for the clipboard. "Also, if you have a partner you will be required to go on the same night they are attending so depending on where your name is on the list you may or may not be bumped to a different night. This period is at a disadvantage since all my earlier classes got to choose first." he got outright yells at that news. God did he ever love his job. "Now that I have told you about that, I need to tell you about the attire of the art fair. You have to dress somewhat formal. While you guys won't have to wear a suit and tie, you will be expected to at least have on a dress shirt and pants. The girls will have to wear either a dress or a skirt and blouse. Got that everyone?" with some of the students cursing their luck Jiraiya decided it was almost time to pass out the clipboard and watch his students fight over it. He really, really loved torturing them. "Now that the dress code is covered, I might as well tell you about how things will be set up." the class was once again quiet. "Each student, or pair of students, will have their own display that they must create with a little background info on what inspired you to create your artwork. It only needs to be around three sentences since we don't want people spending all day at just one artwork. And you already know about titling your work." taking a sip of coffee Jiraiya made a face at the now cold liquid before continuing. "The displays will be set up in a large horse shoe design with three smaller rows in the middle for those who have larger projects or those that don't necessarily have to be hung on the gymnasiums walls." a few gasps and murmurs let loose at the word _'gymnasium'_. "Yes kids, we are holding it in our gymnasium. It is more then large enough and it is also a good way to promote our school at the same time. With that being said, naturally only the best of the best projects will be chosen to be shown off during these three nights. I think that's enough talking for now."

Walking over to his most troublesome table he set the clipboard in front of Deidara who tried to stab Tobi when he reached to take it from him. Shaking his head in amusement he turned to Itachi. "I'm sure Yae already told you that she signed you guys up for the last night. You are lucky. That's the hardest night to get into since it has the least amount of availability; it's been filled up since my forth period." Deidara mumbled something foul under his breath that Jiraiya seemed to catch and laughed about. "Don't blame Yae, she was placed in my second period and you weren't. So get over it." Once Deidara and the others had decided on a night their white haired teacher took the clipboard and left for another table, clearly enjoying his students torment. "Itachi is really lucky to have a partner in second period, isn't he Deidara-sempai?" Tobi said happily until he was hit in the side of the head by a clay bird. "Sempai!" Tobi yelled while falling off his chair. "Stop calling me 'sempai', un!" saying something about over happy lollipops Deidara took clay out of his art bag where he seemed to have a never ending supply. Squeaking noses grated on everyone's ears while Tobi used the overturned art stool to stand up before noisily sitting back down to start messing with the now smashed clay bird. "Sasori what night are you going on? I'm going on the first night!" Tobi asked excitedly. "I am going on the first night as well, and so is Deidara." the blond cursed and looked unhappily at Tobi as he hugged him yelling something about how fun the art fair was going to be with all three of them together. "If you even think of putting up your display anywhere near mine I'll kill you! Do you get that, un?!" Sasori sighed and considered killing both of them before the art fair but decided against it since he would be the prime suspect, well at least in Deidara's case. Itachi tried his best to ignore the idiots that were seated around him but was failing miserably. Thankfully, or maybe not depending on one's opinion, Jiraiya art fair explanation had taken up most of the class time. So Itachi's exposure to _'the idiots seated around him'_ was limited that day. One could almost say Itachi looked 'happy' when the bell rang for 6th period. Well he was slightly elated until he walked up to the gymnasium door and remembered just 'what' his next class was. Yae greeted Itachi with a smile per usual before practically shoving him in the open doors. A strange sight greeted them when the walked in _(or stumbled in)_. The usually obscenely bright lights were dimmed to a medium strength, rows of desks were set up across the gym_ (you know the ones with the chairs attached, yeah.. those lovely ones...) _and a large white screen was set up directly in front of them. "AH! TWO OF MY MOST UNYOUTHFUL STUDENTS! TODAY I HAVE A FILM THAT WILL MAKE YOUR FIRES OF YOUTH BURN!" Gai ran around them after yelling and began to irritate those who had arrived after. "I didn't think they allowed porn in school, do they?" Yae smirked devilishly at Itachi who's lip twitched upwards in response but still not into a smile. "Eh? Well at least I got that much from you today, you 'most un-youthful' student!" she laughed as they found two empty seats in the back row. Once all of the students _(that had decided to attend)_ were there Gai had Lee flip the lights so only the light of the screen and the projector lit up the room, casting the rest of it in an unearthly looking darkness.

"TODAY WE WILL BE WATCHING A FILM ON PROPER WEIGHT TRAINING METHODS AND TECNIQUES! YOU WILL NEED TO KNOW THESE ONCE THEY REOPEN THE WEIGHT ROOM AFTER THEY CLEAN UP THE MESS FROM THE FALLEN TREE! LEE START THE MOVIE!" Once the movie was started Lee gave a thumbs up and sat down in the front row to watch the movie. The rest of the class couldn't tell if this was better then running around the gym listening to their clearly insane teacher or not. After about five minutes Yae leaned in close to Itachi and whispered in to his ear. "Want to play a word game?" turning slightly she saw his curious look. "What? I'm bored, besides do you really want to watch those creepy muscle bound men bench weights?" Seeing Itachi's slight frown she grinned and pulled out a few sheets of paper and two pencils. "I don't have a name for this game so right now it's just 'word game'. The first round starts off with three lettered words and as the levels increase so do letters in the words you're allowed to use. When one player gives a word, the other player _(or players)_ must use that word in a sentence correctly. If correct then only the one who wrote the sentence gets it right. If the one who wrote it got it wrong then the point goes to the one who provided the word, got it?" Seeing Itachi nod she continued. "These are the rules: for every word you have only fifteen seconds to think of a sentence and write it down. The person not writing will keep time. We start off with three lettered words such as _'hat' _and the letters can increase only after the level is completed, one extra letter per level. Each level has three rounds and there are however many levels this period allows us." with the game explained Yae handed Itachi an pencil and paper before writing _'Tag' _on the top of Itachi's paper. Not even two seconds later he was writing down a sentence. _'Sasuke yelled Tag you're it before running away.' _Yae stuck her tongue out at him before adding a point next to his name. _'Fly' _was printed in neat lettering on Yae's paper. _'The woman yelled, waiter there's a Fly in my soup!' _Raising an eyebrow at Yae he gave her a point. The rest of the game continued on like this until there were words like _'carrion' 'omnipotence' and 'necromancy' _being used much to their own amusement. They had just gotten to fourteen when Gai announced that it was time for them to start heading for their next classes. Just as the students began to get up from their seats the bell rang making some of the students' trip over the desks in order to run to their next class. "At least we didn't end up like them when we had to rush. Come on or Tsunade will write us up today." Thankfully the seats had been in the middle of the gym rather then at the opposite or they never would have gotten to class without flat out running there. Surprisingly they made it to class with a little over 20 seconds to spare. Tsunade smiled at them as they took their seats making Yae instantly suspicious. Tsunade was never in a good mood during seventh period, usually she looked stressed and had the lines under her eyes more pronounced. Today however, she looked well rested and energetic; something that was not a normal Tsunade quality.

"Alright, now that I have your attention." Tsunade's loud voice yelled after the bells final chime. "I have decided that instead of making you wait another one, possibly two weeks to find out what the big project will be, I will tell you on Monday." after raising some of the students hopes they groaned in disappointment when she failed to reveal any real information on the subject. "From the looks of it you just can't stand waiting any longer, am I wrong Tsunade-sensei?" Yae received a sharp glare from the blond in question only confirming her suspicions. "I'm going to enjoy all of your reactions when you find out on Monday." she growled before sitting at her black swivel chair. "In all reality I forgot about the project since she only mentioned it this past Monday..." she was met with Itachi's blank stare only proving that she was the only one to forget. Making a face Yae pushed her hood down to her neck and swept away a few strands of ink colored hair from her eyes. Instantly wishing she hadn't removed her hood, she felt the stares of her classmates on her. "Take a picture it'll last longer!" Yae rolled her gold eyes at the idiots she was forced to deal with everyday. A few of them glared at her but turned away while others just looked away. "Honestly..." shaking her head Yae turned her attention back to Tsunade. "-and that's your assignment for today." Tsunade then ignored the class in favor of trying to get rid of the growing stacks of paperwork and ungraded assignments. "Why did I agree to teach as well as be the principle? What the hell was I thinking...Damn that Jiraiya! He probably got me drunk first!" slamming her fist on the desk she startled a few of her students as well as knocking over a bottle of ink that she never really used. "Well that's one way of getting rid of the work Tsunade-sensei." Yae laughed at her teacher's expense. She was fixed with a cold stare from Tsunade who gave up after seeing it had no effect at all. "If all the teachers here weren't so weird the students couldn't away with half of the crap they do, right?" she questioned while looking towards Itachi who merely shrugged in response. "Remind me to make you do the speech portion of our projects because of that." Smiling at Itachi's obvious frown she busied herself with doing extra work to add to Tsunade's paper problem. _'So Tsunade is also the principle. Just as I thought.'_ Itachi also wondered why the principle taught classes seeing as he knew enough about normal schools that principles didn't do that sort of thing. But as Yae stated earlier the teachers around there weren't exactly normal, so the school probably wasn't as well. Having nothing left to distract him from work, including Yae for the moment, Itachi began to do the assignments that weren't even going to be started on until the next week. The work was after all very easy, at least to him. Vaguely he thought he heard Tsunade swear and say something about ink stains but he wasn't paying too much attention to any one thing at the moment.

_'This is too easy. _'Describe the function of a ribosome?'_ Even in ANBU things just aren't challenging enough...'_ Itachi let a small frown show on his features and was poked in the arm for it. Glancing over to Yae he noticed that she was having the same issue he was with the work. He should have expected that with Yae though. "I actually got bored enough in here once that I started reading the dictionary. It wasn't a pretty sight the next week; I was confusing the teachers with all these big words. Though I guess it was kind of funny." Itachi stared at her. "You read a dictionary?" a light flush covered her cheeks and she nodded with a small grin. "I was really bored!" she protested. "You don't speak like you have read a dictionary." Yae's smile turned into a frown before she half smiled. "I suppose that can be taken as an insult OR a compliment, I'll take the compliment thank you!" sticking her tongue out at Itachi she turned her attention back to Tsunade who was looking at them oddly. Their impromptu staring match was broken by Hidan who came stalking into class soaking wet and swearing up a storm. "Those fucking fuckers, I'll fucking kill them..." he gave Tsunade a late pass she hadn't been expecting and she didn't dare say a word about his state of dress, but the smirk on her face said it all. "You finally decided to take a bath Hidan? I'm proud of you." kakuzu said while laughing at his friend's expense. "Shut the fuck up kakuzu or I'll add you to the top of my fucking list!" Yae herself was having a hard time not outright laughing at the silver haired boy who had come in drenched. Hidan continued to spill curses through his lips as though they were prayers and for the most part Tsunade and everyone else ignored him. Yae did get a few intelligent phrases out of the swearing; _'shoved into the pool'_, _'will personally kill those bastards'_ and '_gut them and make them eat their own intestines' _among them. Yae wondered who in their right mind would push Hidan into the school's pool but decided she'd probably find out when they turned up dead within the next few days, that is if Hidan actually went through with his threats. Shaking her head Yae decided to call it a day with the small amount of work she had done. There just really wasn't a point in doing anymore with the end of the period so close. "Itachi, don't forget to ask your parents about the project. We really do need to get started on it. And I'm sure Jiraiya told you that you had to do most of the written work but I'll help get the resources." not expecting an answer she went back to neatly organizing her notes and class work into separate piles and then proceeding to shove them into her well worn notebook. Her pale fingers gently gripped the notebook's soft cover before making it disappear into her bag. "Guess I will see you tomorrow, have a good night." the bell rang and Yae was the first one to leave the classroom. Itachi really wanted to know how she always seemed to get the bell times down to the exact second it rang. The rest of the time before Itachi arrived home was spent thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong concerning the project if his father caught wind of it regardless of the fact that it was school related. Walking in through the front door he automatically went to the kitchen where his mother and younger brother were usually hanging around at this time. He saw his mother with a sweet smile on her face cutting up what looked like apples and spooning a lump of peanut butter next to it on the dish. "Itachi, do you need something?" she turned her smile to him yet Itachi thought it seemed strained and almost sad as though she knew something he didn't. He wondered if it had anything to do with the conversation he had overheard. "Mother, I have a art project from school that must be completed by both partners. My partner was wondering when would it be a good time to get together to start working on it, and if we could possibly do it here." Mikoto seemed surprised at the request. "Hmm...Let's see." she gently tapped a finger against her lips in thought while her other hand rested on the kitchen's counter top. "How about next Thursday? Ask if that is OK for them." Itachi nodded his thanks and started his retreat from the kitchen. "Itachi... What's your partners name for this project?" Itachi could have sworn his mother was smiling widely at him even though he couldn't physically see it. "Her name is Yae, she is the...friend I mentioned a few days ago." leaving the kitchen and walking towards his room he spied the backyard and watched as Sasuke was tackled to the ground by a blond blur. _'Naruto must be over today. No wonder mother was making so much.' _Itachi watched the two for a few more minutes before he retired to his room even though he would be going back to the kitchen when the boys were eating their snacks. It was always so much livelier when his father wasn't around.

**(Time skip, 4am)**

**-Ring- -Ring- -Ring- -Rin-**

Blinking the last bits of sleep from her eyes she fumbled around in the dark to grab at her phone. "Hello?" her voice was slightly groggy causing the person on the other side to laugh lightly. _'I was hoping that you would answer...' _the soft velvety voice spoke into her ear. Falling back onto the bed with a flop, Yae allowed her eyes to close again as she listened to the one sided conversation. The early morning air was cool as it filtered in through her open window; the black curtains swayed softly back and forth. A particularly strong gust of wind surged through the window making her exposed skin shiver and cover itself with goose pimples. Drawing the covers around herself she curled up while still listening to the voice on the other line. And after a prolonged moment it was her turn to speak. "Yes I understand. It will be done before all of my other obligations today. I expect the usual payment unless problems occur, then I want a bonus." the man on the other line muttered something like _'sure, sure you tell us this all the time' _before the two hung up. Closing her phone she dropped it somewhere on her floor not really caring where it went or if it broke. The fact that she was hoping it might break had everything to do with the subject of the last call and nothing to do with the actual phone. "Argg!" throwing a pillow across the room she pouted when it hit her light switch turning bright lights onto the previously dark room. "Damn it... I better not be late for school because of this." with a long sigh she heaved herself from the warmth of the bed and began to prepare for another early 'job'. Shivering in just her bra and panties she quickly found a black t-shirt and black jeans to wear. Sometimes she really, really wished she had never taken this work on at all.

XxXxXxXx

Long black hair trailed messily behind Yae as she ran through the schools main doors. It was ten seconds till the bell and she had a little over half the hallway to travel, she was not going to be late. Her left foot made it over the threshold just as the bell rang leaving her gripping the door gasping somewhat silently. "Ha! I made it..." she managed to say between breaths. All eyes were on her including the hateful eyes of her teacher as she made her way to the back. "I'm thrilled you could join us." Orochimaru explained with a sneer on his pale face. Fighting the urge to flip him off _(something she had already done to him that week; she tried to limit herself to just one crude gesture a week.)_ she sat down breathlessly beside Itachi. "Work called me in for something this morning and it ran late so I almost didn't make it in time. But I ran all the way here." wrenching a hair tie violently off her wrist she grabbed the tangled locks of black hair and forced them into what could be called a messy bun. Waving her hands in front of her face she pouted. "It's too damn hot in this hoodie!" glaring at Itachi when she saw the look of amusement that crossed his eyes she sank into her chair. "Then take it off." Yae blinked at Itachi for a few minutes before crossing her arms. "I would if it weren't for a few reasons. One of them being I don't want everyone to know how awesome I look under this." she grinned at him in a playful manner making him roll his eyes. "Then stop complaining about how uncomfortable you are. Some of us are actually trying to learn." Yae had to stifle a laugh and nearly snorted in the process. "Learn? In this class? Please. Even the best couldn't learn anything from roachi's class!" having said this a little too loud it was overheard by a few other students causing loud laughter to interrupt Orochimaru's lesson. His eyes immediately glanced up towards Yae who was doing her best to look completely innocent; and absolutely failing. "While some students may not appreciate what us teachers are doing-" Yae sighed with irritation. "Here we go again, the speech about how freaking great he is and why we should love him and kiss his feet. Joy." Raising an eyebrow ever so slightly Itachi kept his face impassive least he be called upon for disrupting. The less he had to deal with that man the better in his opinion. _'Yae is correct about his '_speech_' so far though. I don't think anyone is actually listening to him either. He must do this a lot of the other students to be immune to them.'_ placing his pen on the desk he continued to stare straight ahead of him, looking neither at Orochimaru nor anything else in particular but still maintaining his attentive appearance. "Oh good kami he ate up the entire class period with that one!" Yae bemoaned quietly while pointing to the clock above the door. Her head banged on the desk quietly as she mumbled something that sounded like _'rather be shot then deal with this anymore'. _It seemed her wish was granted for only a few minutes later the bell rang. "This has got to be the most boring and health hazardous class in the entire school..." groaning slightly as she shouldered her bag she looked back at Itachi. "In third tell me about the plans for out little art related get together, OK? See ya." with a half wave of her hand she practically ran out of the room leaving Itachi to stare blankly at her retreating form.

She really wondered what went on in his head seeing as half the time he didn't speak. _'Maybe with this project I can get him to open up a little more?' _she wondered silently. Right now she was just glad to be rid of Orochimaru until at least tomorrow. _'Or maybe I'll get lucky and he'll die before then...'_ her thoughts turned dark as she entered Jiraiya's class and wondered if she was going to be bothered by Kakuzu again. _'At least the past two days I've had more sleep so I shouldn't snap again.'_ with a small smirk she looked up to find half the class staring at her. "What?" her smile vanished as she glared at the offenders. "We just never expected you to not look horrible with your hair up. We always thought that perhaps you were hiding a hideous scar or something. It seems that we were wrong." thinking on the random boy's words she nearly smacked herself in the forehead for leaving her hair up while her hood was down. Viciously tugging the hood over her hair and almost directly over her eyes she silently dared anyone to say anything else. _'Damn it! What is it about this class that makes my sanity fly right out the window, or at least my common sense?' _feeling the need to be particularly violent to something at the moment she unseated herself and went to the clay storage area and grabbed a large chunk of clay and brought it back with her to the table after grabbing a sheet of newspaper. Setting the clay on the newspaper she split it up into three smaller pieces before taking one of them in her hand; mashing the clay between her two hands and squeezing it until a chunk fell onto the table Yae felt a little better at her earlier mistake. "What did I say about going temporarily insane in here?" sighing in pure annoyance Yae glanced up to Jiraiya. "I'm perfectly normal today, I just feel the need to flatten something, preferably this clay." as if to make her point she slammed the clay onto the news paper and pushed into it until it was nearly squished into the paper. "Are you usually this violent or is it a certain time of the month for you?" another familiar voice asked while seating himself directly in front of Yae. "When it is I'll let you know so that when I kill you and mutilate your bleeding corpse I can blame it on PMS." smiling rather sadistically at Kakuzu she watched as an unreadable expression crossed his face. "Charming, really." rolling her eyes she went back to the clay. _'What do I actually want to make with this now that I have severely flattened it? Hmmm...Ookami...'_ letting her mind drift she concentrated only on forming the basic shape she desired with the clay; the details would come later. To her, art was more then just tools and a can of paint or a hunk of clay. To her art was a way of expressing feeling, to become so completely connected with something that you leave a piece of yourself with it. Closing her eyes she let her hands work on the clay. The feeling of the cold material sliding under her warm hands, being molded and conforming to her wishes was something she had always enjoyed about that medium. Pushing a portion of the clay upwards she worked on forming the ears and smoothing the lines between them. Aware that she was being watched she opened her eyes and looked at her teacher and fellow classmate.

"Can I help you?" she mumbled scathingly. "No, but feel free to keep going." noticing the two of them looking down she realized they had been watching her hands intently as it formed the basic shape of a wolfs head. "Somehow you manage to make everything you say sound ero." Jiraiya laughed. "I have no idea if you just insulted me with 'ero' or not but I have a feeling it has to do with my status of a super pervert!" he said the last part louder and struck a slightly disturbing pose. "You have been spending far too much time alone with Gai-sensei haven't you?" shaking her head Yae glanced at the clock in the back of the room and nearly cursed when she realized she had zoned out for the majority of the class. _'Damn this only leaves me with a few minutes to pack this up and get ready to leave. Oh well. At least I have something to work on tomorrow...oh wait tomorrows Saturday!' _hanging her head with a slight groan she wished it were Monday already. They always decided to give her more work on the weekend. Pointedly ignoring the two men staring at her she packed up the clay wolf head in the newspaper and sealed it inside a plastic bag after all the air was out. "Ero-sensei you need to get a new sink in here so I can wash my hands!" she yelled across the classroom. "I wouldn't need a new sink if that idiot hadn't blown apart half the damn wall with his exploding clay!" the white haired man yelled back. "I don't care what he did, just get a new sink." trying to hide the laughter in her voice she watched as Jiraiya glared at her before giving up and walking away. _'Annoy Jiraiya-sensei, Mission: success!'_ looking at her hands that were covered in dry clay she frowned. _'It's not like I can wipe it anywhere... Why did I have to work with clay!' _she mentally cried. Pouting she made a mental note to kill that bomb freak Deidara for destroying the only working sink in the classroom. Resigning to the fact that she would end up with clay marks on her bag she shouldered it and tried not to think of the white marks now littering the shoulder strap. _'It can be washed. It can be washed. It can be...'_ became her mantra all the way until next she entered Iruka's classroom and practically begged him to let her go wash her hands. Going to the nearest water fountain she quickly rinsed her hands and had to run back to class before the bell, there was no way she was taking the chance that Iruka would give her detention over that. Thanking Iruka as she walked back into class she seated herself before explaining to Itachi why her things were there but she was not. "That idiot Deidara blew up the only sink in Jiraiya classroom and I needed to wash my hands after working with clay today." hearing her say that she worked with clay as well interested Itachi. "What are you making?" her smile grew as she spoke. "A wolf. Or rather just the head." she had debated on weather to say Ookami or wolf but decided to stick with the English translation. "So... What did your parents say about me coming over?" she watched as the expression on his face darkened slightly. "My mother said it would be fine for you to come over next Thursday." Yae noticed the lack of 'father' in his answer and wondered about it. She knew for a fact that his father was alive (_Internet was god!)_; perhaps they didn't get along well? "Cool, I'll make sure work _knows_ that I need that day off." there was an irritated look in Yae's golden eyes as she said 'knows' as though implying they had ignored her requests before. "Speaking of important things or unimportant depending on how you look at it. Has Jennifer bothered you at all today?" with a small shake of his head Yae's suspicions were confirmed. _'She's planning something big, hopefully I don't have to eliminate her...that would be too bothersome.'_

"Alright class settle down, I have an announcement today!" Iruka yelled from his desk. "Today we will be working with another teacher and having a sort of duel class, at least until the class ends. Those of you who are lucky enough to have the same teacher for next period will naturally have a head start on the rest of the class." Iruka looked at both Yae and Itachi who regarded him curiously. "I figured that you would all like to get out of the classroom every now and again so before it gets too cold; we are going to be doing a little photography outside." one student raised her hand and asked a question. "What does this have to do with math?" a few of the other students nodded their agreement. "If you had let me finish it would have been explained eventually, but I might as well start now." the girl smiled sheepishly and kept silent. "For one, the photos will have to have certain mathematical qualities about them like shapes and angles. For instance you can't just take a picture of a tree and say your done. You need to have something like a square or circle in the picture with it in order for it to count." a few groans were heard in the class before a knock on the door silenced them. "This must be the other class, now everyone gather your things since we will be dismissing from outside." the students gathered their things and looked on as a silver haired man walked inside. Yae burst out laughing making both teachers look directly at her. "YO, Kakashi-sensei!" the man in question immediately frowned upon seeing his least favorite student. _(he would never mention ever under the pain of torture that he found her amusing) _"There goes my sanity..." he muttered sadly. Iruka looked amused and made a point of asking Yae to explain what she did to annoy him and if he could learn it. Kakashi sulked silently. "Come on everyone of we wont even be able to start today." Iruka led all the students out that buildings set of doors and into the cool air. Iruka shook his head. "I still don't see how the tree's still have leaves on them at this month..."

"We have had an exceptionally warm winter so far." Yae agreed. Something green whooshed by her stirring up the cool air making her shiver. "Yes! I have made it here in record time!" lee yelled while punching a fist into the air_.(after setting the boxes he was carrying on the grass) _"Here are the camera's you requested Mr. Umino! I need to get back to class now, goodbye and may the fires of youth burn bright!" Lee saluted before running back the way he came. "I don't think I'll ever get used to him." Iruka whispered quietly while Kakashi smiled secretly. "Well now that are supplies are here we can get started after I explain a few more things." Iruka walked over to the boxes and opened one of them pulling out a camera. "These are a few of the older models the photography classes used for their projects that they graciously allowed us to use. So do NOT break them." a few students cringed at his tone of voice. "Now you may work in pairs or groups but this is an individual project so you must take your own pictures. As for the assignment it will differ slightly between the classes and I'm sure that has already been explained to Mr. Hatake's class." the students nodded so Kakashi was spared a glare from Iruka. "For those of you who have his class next period as well I'm sure he will be explaining it to his next class. Now, you must have a minimum of five pictures for this assignment. Everyone take a camera and you may begin to work." while handing out the camera's a brunette haired girl asked a question. "Do we have to stay right here or are we allowed to go other places?" Iruka beamed at her. "That's an excellent question. You are allowed to go anywhere outside as long as you are not interfering with other classes and you must be back here to hand in the camera along with the number on the camera so we can give you the same one on Monday with the same film." the girl and her friends nodded after taking their camera's and ran off to a different part of the courtyard. Iruka handed Yae two cameras so that she could just give Itachi the other when she walked back over to him. "So where should we go?" Itachi shrugged. "That was helpful." glaring at Itachi Yae removed the shutter cap and moved her eyes over to the view finder. "Hm..." looking through the lens she spied the top of the lunch room where there was a white square box situated. Pressing a button the camera snapped a picture. "This is going to get real old real fast...everything is square or rectangular!" pouting for a moment she missed Itachi's nod of agreement. "Wait! The gates are different shapes! Or at least the pattern on it!" grinning wildly she grabbed Itachi's unoccupied hand and proceeded to drag him to the back of the school where the students parking lot was. The fence and accompanying gates were locked at the moment unless you had a key card that let you in. _(If you had to leave early for work) _the gates were made of normal metal but had small diamond patterned holes. Yae raised her camera and snapped another shot, Itachi followed suit and grabbed his first picture for the day. "So...we have to take at least five pictures, but the more pictures the better our grade will be? And we are here for three days total for two classes each time...We are going to end up using the entire roll and still have more then enough time on our hands...this sucks..." Yae whined while hanging her head.

Her head suddenly shot up. "Drain pipes! Those are cylinder! Something other then squares..." once again she proceeded to drag Itachi across the school grounds until she found what she wanted to take a picture of. This happened a few more times until Yae looked at her watch and declared that it was time to head back; they were one of the last groups to arrive but Iruka told them they really didn't have to hand in their camera's unless they wanted to be done for that day and have some spare time. "Should we? It's not like I can think of anything else to take a picture of today anyway..." Yae mumbled quietly at the end. Itachi decided before her and handed Iruka his camera with a blank look while Yae sighed and handed in hers as well; Iruka jotted down their numbers while looking mildly amused at the pair. "So as long as we stay in sight we're good right?" Yae questioned. Looking to Kakashi who nodded Iruka gave them the all clear and sent them on their way. "I'll bet you anything that Kakashi will still want our dream assignments." Yae settled down on the ground underneath the large maple tree in the courtyard and shivered under the breeze. "I'm finally going to have to start wearing long sleeved shirts again." Yae looked over to Itachi only to glare at him for not even looking bothered by the cool wind. Taking her bag Yae pulled out her familiar CD player and ear phones _(and after giving one to Itachi)_ she pressed the play button. "It's normal music today…I think. OK I really have no idea I just grabbed a random CD this morning." when the first song finally started playing it had a rock'n roll beat to it and a male vocalist came on shortly after. "Yeah I was right!" Itachi gave her a weird look before going back to listening to the music. It was better then sitting there silently or taking more pictures of the same things. The two of them watched while Iruka and Kakashi gave their speeches to their respective classes and were given glares and looks of confusion from the other students who noticed their lack of work. Neither of them really cared seeing as they had already completed their work assignments for that day. "Should we eat lunch here today when the bell rings?" Yae asked suddenly about ten minutes before the bell. "That's fine with me." Yae looked surprised to hear Itachi's voice and opened her previously closed eyes. "You talked!" she pointed at him while faking a look of pure shock. Inwardly rolling his eyes Itachi shook his head slightly. "Hey, even you can't deny that you haven't said more then a handful of things today. And it's a good thing it's OK with you because I really don't feel like moving." A little under five minutes later Kakashi came strolling over to them while asking for their dream assignments. "I told you so. Damn I should have made you bet me money!" with a smirk she handed her paper to Kakashi as Itachi handed his in. "I guess I can't persuade the both of you to help me with paperwork today?" Kakashi sounded hopeful as he asked this only to be disappointed when Yae ever so cleverly yelled _'Hell No'_. "Fine, fine. But I'm sure you'll do something to make me unhappy and then you will have to help with paperwork." Kakashi turned and left the pair as quickly as he had come.

"I think that even if I just sat there quietly all period he'd find a reason to make me help...this sucks...but it could be worse. He could be Orochimaru, and then I'd get yelled at for skipping my punishment." Yae shrugged and the bell rang. "Food!" grinning like a loon she pulled a blue container out from her bag and a pair of chopsticks. Itachi repeated her actions in a much calmer manner and the two began to eat while still listening to music. Students began to pour out of the buildings like roaches, all of them heading mostly in the same direction. The cafeteria. Itachi could hear the students whisper about them as they sat there eating, and yet it was a more comfortable atmosphere then the top of the cafeteria. Once the second bell rang the outpour of students had dwindled to just a few stragglers before it was finally silent again with the breeze as the only distinguishable sound. They both remained silent long after they had finished their meals content to enjoy the silence through one ear and the music from the other. Eventually Yae poked Itachi in the arm and told him to hand over the earphone. The bell rang only seconds after she had placed both items safely back in her bag. "I guess I'll see you later."

Per usual Yae left Itachi to walk to his own class alone. As she passed through the doors to her building she saw Jennifer out of the corner of her eye staring at her. _'Geez. If she is going to stalk us she should at least put a little more effort into it, like put her hair up or something. But I wonder when exactly will she make her move?'_ brushing past people in the hallway she managed to step into the classrooms doorway fairly early. "Oh, Yae come here for a moment." Anko called from her desk. "Take these." shoving a stack of papers into Yae's arms Anko continued. "And these." she added another huge stack of colored paper. "And take them Kurenai's classroom. She's in building two. Oh and here is your hall pass, and no I don't expect you to come back if you don't want to, you don't do anything in here anyway." making shooing motions towards Yae, Anko went back to staring off into space. "I will not complain...I will not complain..." Yae mumbled under her breath and walked back out of the class carrying the heavy stack of paper. She waited until the last minute rush of students calmed down before she even attempted to walk through the hallway with her burden. "Now how the hell am I opening this?" glaring at the doors she looked at them for a moment before a grin broke out on her face. "I always wanted to do this." Lifting her left leg she planted her foot firmly in the center of the door and watched as it flew open as though it were made of paper before crashing into the bricks outside. Quickly walking out before she got into trouble she headed left through the courtyard_ (and about fifty feet)_ to building two. "Thank kami the doors are the same." using her foot to once again 'open' the door she strode inside and frowned. "She never told me what classroom number...Urg!" with a scowl she walked slowly through the hallway glancing at the name tags on the side of the doors while trying to make it look like she wasn't. "Finally!" room number '115- U. Kurenai'. "And the door is open. Damn that could have been funny too..." walking into the class she noted how everyone went silent. "Joy..." A woman with long dark hair and almost ruby colored eyes walked up to her with a smile. "Could Anko have given you any more to carry? I'm sorry about that." once half the stack was taken from her she sighed in relief. "No, I'm used to Anko-sensei by now. Where do you want these?" trying her best to be friendly she ignored the odd look Kurenai gave her. "Just follow me." Kurenai led her into the back of the room where a small storage closet was situated. "Just place them next to the other pile and then you can leave." doing as she was asked Yae placed the papers by the colored ones Kurenai had just put down. She said nothing as Kurenai watched her in an almost hawk like manner before she was finally out of the classroom. "She acted like I was going to take something. Honestly..." shaking her head Yae made her way outside only to stop and lean on the multi colored bricks of the wall. "I could wander around for a few more minutes...Anko did say I could..." with that settled she began walking slowly through the courtyard and around the building making sure not to get caught, hall pass or not. She was rather surprised when the bell rang for sixth period. Shrugging her shoulders she walked calmly out from the side of building three scaring a girl who had been standing there. Smirking, Yae walked steadily until she was in front of building five where she saw Itachi walking up to. "YO!" she waved to Itachi who 'hn'ed in response.

"I wonder what he has planned for us today." Yae remarked while keeping her face blank. "I hope it's another movie so I don't have to do anything..." Yae's hopeful mood plummeted as they read a bright orange sign taped to the door. "Oh no..." Yae groaned. "Does he love to torture us?!" Itachi gave her a look of curiosity, not quite sure if she was just blowing things out of proportion or not. "Oh, you'll find out when we get to the back field." with Yae leading them behind the building and down a steep hill they reached the enormous field quickly. "This is why I should have stayed at work today..." Itachi looked at the field emotionlessly but Yae could tell he wasn't exactly thrilled either. The field was covered in a large obstacle course that had hurdles, tires, nets and climbing bars just to name a few things. "Oh he really out did himself this time..." It's not that anything on the course was particularly hard; it was the fact that the course spanned the _entire_ field. "AH, THE LAST OF MY YOUTHFUL STUDENTS HAVE ARRIVED! TODAY I EXPECT EVERYONE TO RUN THE ENTIRE COURSE AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE THE BELL RINGS. LET YOUR FIRES OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTLY, BEGIN!" Yae stared at him for a minute as did half of the class before she groaned and took off towards the obstacles. As she passed the first obstacle, which was stepping in and out of tires laid out on the ground, Yae felt the urge to kill her teacher in a very painful manner. It was only when Itachi passed ahead of her and was halfway through the next obstacle did Yae kick it into gear.

"Fine...I'll do this if only to beat you..." nearly growling she charged forward. After clearing the net climbing, tangled webs of rope, two sets of hurdles and running through a large maze_ (literally running) _Yae was more then a little winded. "Dear kami I don't...even have to do this for work!" she gasped out. Itachi who was running next to her _(after she had caught up with him) _said nothing though she didn't doubt that he had heard her. "I'm going to die form heat exhaustion..." Yae whined pathetically. "Then take your hoodie off or stop complaining." Yae carefully weighed her options. 1: pass out from heat exhaustion or 2: take off the hoodie and have people stare at her. Heat exhaustion won out and she struggled to remove her hoddie while still maintaining her pace. With a soft sigh she felt the cool air touch her skin. Tying the hoodie around her waste she mentally thanked whatever force had made her put on her black arm bands that day; if she hadn't there would have been problems. She heard a crash and spared a look behind her to see that a girl had fallen to the ground and was staring at her in shock. Rolling her eyes Yae had to run a little faster to catch up with Itachi who had once again gotten ahead of her. _'Where the fuck does he get all of that energy. I'm ready to drop.' _Ignoring the pain in her side she continued through the next set of obstacles until Gai yelled for them all to gather their things. "I AM SURPRISED THAT NONE OF YOU FINISHED THE COURSE EXCEPT LEE, WE WILL HAVE TO WORK HARDER SO THAT YOU CAN ALL FINISH ONE DAY!" Gai cried into the air while those around him inched away. Breathing harshly Yae placed her bag over her shoulder mentally crying at how heavy it seemed now. She could feel the stares of her classmates and ignored them when someone yelled _'why the hell are you hiding that body?!'_. Shaking her head she turned to Itachi who was also looking at her. Now that her hoodie was off it exposed the black t-shirt and armbands she was wearing. The armbands started at her wrists and continued to just above her elbows.

"This is why I keep my hoodie on. Unwanted attention." she muttered darkly. _'Those armbands must be covering the scars I've seen on her arms. She was lucky she was wearing them.' _Itachi thought to himself. Shrugging a shoulder almost unnoticeably he turned away from Yae and headed towards the hill that lead to the main buildings. In doing so he missed the relieved smile she threw at him. _'At least one person isn't drooling over me. I wonder if he's asexual or something, he doesn't seem to be turned on by anything.' _snickering softly at Itachi's expense she slowly followed after him. "Damn it!" she yelled when she finally got to the top of the hill. The bell to seventh had just rang and they were nowhere even near the main buildings. "Time to run again!" grabbing Itachi's hand she dragged him forward as they made a run for their next class _(not that Itachi had much of a choice in the matter)_ Weaving in between the mass of stationary bodies, reminding Yae very much of those horror movie zombies, they had only just gotten to the right building when Yae predicted they only had about fifteen seconds to get up the stairs and down the hall before they were late. Nearly collapsing in the doorway Yae was gasping for breath while Itachi was a little more composed. Leaning into the door frame Yae caught Tsunade's amused smile. "Gai-sensei would be proud at us for this...except for the fact that my legs feel like Jell-O...but I blame the previous obstacle course for that!" her face was lightly flushed giving her cheeks a rosy hue making her eyes stand out even more. Dragging her body to her desk Yae slumped down into the chair. "That was more running then I ever want to do again...ever!" Yae realized that her reaction to all of this made her seem lazy and probably unfit but seriously, who else beside Lee could run the entire obstacle course then run to their class without feeling as though they were going to pass out? "What did Gai do this time that has you so exhausted?" Tsunade laughed out her question. "Go look out your window at the back field. I'm going to get him for this one... it's worse then the last time he made us do this!" Yae cried out breathlessly. "He has made you run obstacle courses before?" Itachi asked quietly. Yae merely nodded. "He does at least three times a year, this is the second one this year so expect another on in the near future."

"Wow, he really had it in for you guys today didn't he?" Tsunade whistled when she saw the state of the field. "Don't remind me..." Yae was about to place her head on the desk when a silver haired boy walked through the door. "You're late again. That's another detention Hidan." a sling of curses fired from his mouth as he sat down next to Kakuzu who was none to politely staring at Yae curiously. "Kakuzu? What the hell are you looking at- holy shit!" everyone's attention was then drawn towards Yae and Itachi. "Who knew she was so fucking hot underneath all of those baggy clothes." glaring darkly at Hidan she vowed to kill him one day. _'As if I didn't have enough people already looking at me he just has to alert those who weren't paying attention!'_ crossing her arms she stared at the clock. "Nice going Hidan now she's going to associate your idiocy with the rest of us." she almost smiled at that. Almost. "What are your plans for the weekend?" she turned and asked Itachi just as Tsunade began addressing the class. "I don't know." he answered tonelessly. "Well I supposed that's better then a 'hn' so I'll take it. I don't really know what I'm doing either. I'm supposed to be off from work but we'll see how that goes.." as an afterthought she added "-and if I have time I'll try to draw out the picture for our project on the canvas so you don't have to sit there and wait for me to do that when I come over." there was once again silence between the two of them drowned out by Tsunade's talking and explaining of the new lesson they had apparently started that day. Something that Itachi was sure both Yae and himself already knew. Time passed boringly slow to the point Itachi could almost hear the clock ticking over the classrooms noise. Finally at 2:28 Tsunade _(seeing as Yae had already done so)_ told them to pack up their things so she could leave once the bell rang. "Have fun and don't work to much this weekend. I'll see you on Monday." Yae smiled and waved at Itachi and left as soon as the bell rang. Both of them made their way to their respective homes much in the same way they had for the last week with nothing new, and nothing changing.

**(Chapter 3 PART 3!! The Weekend….)**

_-Time Skip- around 15 hours- 5:30am (AN: school gets out at 2:30pm)_

Itachi was forcefully pulled from his dreamless sleep by a none too gentle shaking of his shoulders. "Aniki! Aniki wake up!" a soft voice accompanied the shaking. Blinking into the darkness Itachi's blurry eyes settled on the form of his younger brother. "Sasuke what is it?" holding back a yawn he watched his brother fidget slightly. "Naruto and I want to know if you will take us to the park today? So will you?" through the darkness Itachi could see the hopeful expression on his brothers face making him inwardly sigh. Putting on a small smile he replied. "Ask Naruto what time he would like to go at." Sasuke let out a small yell of happiness before pouncing on his brother. "Thank you!" releasing him sasuke pulled the black cordless house phone from his pocket and jabbered excitedly into it. Itachi assumed that it was Naruto. Sasuke quietly slipped out of Itachi's room and closed the door before running back to his own room to talk. Glancing at the clock Itachi pulled the covers over his head and attempted to gain another few minutes or if he was lucky, a few hours more of sleep. Five-thirty was not a good time to be awake on the weekend.

Elsewhere, around three hours later, Yae yawned widely as she walked into a grocery store. "I should still be sleeping...but no my phone just had to ring." with a sigh she picked up a small red basket rather then use a shopping cart. "Now what do I want..." humming softly to herself she walked up and down the isles randomly putting items into the basket. Looking at her watch she sighed and pulled out her wallet and took out a small envelop that she hid behind a small bag of potato chips in the basket. Turning the corner she stopped in front of the large produce section. "Apples sound good..." Walking a little further down she placed the basket on the ground she smiled at the woman who was also gathering fruit. Picking up two yellow apples _(golden delicious)_ and setting them inside the red basket she walked away careful to keep herself from reaching into the basket until she was at the other end of the store and out of the view of cameras. Glancing around quickly she pulled a long, thin blue envelop out from under a similar bag of chips to the ones that had been in 'her' basket. Slipping the envelope into her pocket she looked at the items in the basket. "Seriously she couldn't pick something I'd actually eat? I'm putting half this shit back..." immediately taking out a jar of relish and a can of beets and shoving them randomly onto a shelf she continued with her non job related shopping. She wouldn't actually have to hand in the contents of the envelop until later on in the day, so for now she had free time. Picking up a few bowls of _'Hot & Spicy'_ instant ramen along with more disposable chopsticks she moved further down that isle to grab a box of strawberry flavored pocky. Making her way to the frozen food section she stopped in front of the 'minute meals' section as she called it. "Absolute junk...if only I had time to actually make dinner most of the time I wouldn't have to eat this." with a shake of her head she opened the freezer door and grabbed six different '_Hot Pockets'_ meals and carefully balanced them in the basket. On her way to the register she grabbed a loaf of potato bread, strawberry preserves, BBQ sauce and a roll of chocolate chip cookie dough. "I'm not going to live past thirty with all the crap I eat..." heading to the self checkout and paying for her things she was done in less then five minutes. Feeling her phone vibrate in her pocket she frowned before answering it with fake cheerfulness. _'Somethings will never change...' _she thought to herself.

_XxXxXxXx_

_**-Sometime Later-**_

Itachi watched the two younger boys run around chasing one another while trampling the lush green grass of the park. Sighing he took a seat on one of the benches. He figured that if they wanted him they would eventually drag him over. "Come get me Sasuke!" the young blond giggled as he darted around another tree leaving Sasuke to almost smack into it. He watched as his younger brother growled and lunged at the blond before tackling him to the ground where they lay laughing. Smiling at them he felt the urge to yawn again, not that he would, since Sasuke had interrupted his sleep earlier. "Is that a smile I see? Wow, I'm shocked." startled he was surprised to see Yae standing next to him laughing. "I cut through here to get to and from work. And I know why you're here." she glanced over at the two boys who were now wrestling with one another. In reality Yae was following someone as a request from work, the man had just happened to go to the park. "Did you offer or were you told to take them?" her attention was still focused solely on Itachi so she didn't notice the blond boy look at her with slightly teary eyes. "Neither. Sasuke woke me at five this morning to ask me." Yae managed to stifle a laugh. "Ouch...I didn't get up until seven." Itachi glared at her until a black blur ran into him giving him a hug. "Aniki, who's this?" the young dark haired boy asked. "You must be Sasuke, right?" the boy looked surprised and nodded a little shyly. "Itachi has told me about you. And I have to say you two do look similar." Yae smirked when Sasuke fidgeted slightly. "Leave my brother alone Yae." laughing she shook her head and pretended to pout. "You are aniki's girlfriend aren't you?!" the laughing stopped and she looked at him blankly. "Just what have you been telling him Itachi?" she raised her eyebrow while trying not to break out laughing again. Itachi had lost some of his calm expression and was glaring softly at his bother. "She is only a friend Sasuke, I told you before." Sasuke seemed to ignore him in favor of defending himself. "But she is a girl, and she is your friend. So...she is your girlfriend!" the boy shrieked when Itachi tried to grab him and ran out of his reach. "Ah, he's hitting that age of defiance. How amusing." Itachi sighed. "Come on Naruto!" Yae looked up sharply at that name and almost gasped. She settled on a huge smile instead, as it wouldn't look as suspicious. Having finally gotten a good look at the blond she wanted to smack herself for not noticing it immediately. "This is Naruto, my best friend." Sasuke stated proudly as he presented the blond haired boy before Yae. Yae wanted to shout that she she knew who he was and then crush the small boy into a hug but she couldn't if she wanted to avoid unwanted questions. "Hi Naruto, I'm Itachi's friend Yae." she waved with a smile. The boy was looking good, much better then he had been only a few years ago. "Hi! Why are your eyes gold?" the blond seemed to blurt out. _'So he's resorted to using a mask. I suppose it was unavoidable considering he would have been found far to easily if he had stayed who he was.'_

"Naruto that's rude!" Sasuke punched Naruto in the arm lightly. "No it's ok. It is a good question but the answer is simple. Because I wanted my eyes to be a strange color. Almost like the eyes of a wolf." she watched as Naruto's smile widened at 'wolf'. Looking at her watch she frowned. "Damn I have to get going or I'm going to be late to work!" both boy's smiles fell and she inwardly winced. "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll see you guys again. After all I am Itachi's 'girlfriend', though I wish he would have told me..." she pretended to look hurt while silently laughing at Itachi. "I want you to play with us the next time we meet, you're funny!" the whiskered blond yelled before grabbing Sasuke's hand and dragging him away. She could see the tears on the boys face and made a promise to herself to look after him now that they had been reunited after two years. "I guess I'll see you on Monday. Have fun with those two balls of energy OK?" waving to Itachi, Yae got up from her position on the bench and with a lighter heart she walked off to her 'job'. Once Yae was out of his line of sight Itachi's dark eyes turned back to the two boys. "Itachi come play with us!" Naruto yelled while running away from Sasuke. "Yeah, come on aniki!" with a small nod Itachi left the comfort of the bench he had been sitting on to go play with _(more like get dragged around by) _the two boys.

XxXxXxXx

"I might have to take Gai-sensei off of my hit list...I think all of that running actually helped me..." Yae whispered a little breathless _(but not gasping)_ as she carefully caught up with her target at the back entrance to an alleyway._ 'This guy is quick. I was with Itachi for less then ten minutes and he already got this far from me. Is he an agent?' _she silently wondered. The slightly balding man reached into his pocket and pulled a cell phone out before answering it quietly. "Yes, everything is going well. I am at the meeting point as scheduled." he spoke gruffly into the phone while waiting for directions from the other end. "I understand. I will talk to you later." gold eyes narrowed. '_So this is why I was asked to follow him.'_ edging forward she stepped around the broken glass on the pavement making sure not to accidentally disturb it. A car pulled up in front of the other entranceway marked only by it's squeaking tires. "I see you made it. What is the news on the second unit we sent out?" the newcomers voice had started out normal but decreased to a hushed whisper by the end. "They were taken out by an unknown assailant or assailants. We don't yet know if it was a group or just a rogue." the other man, with dark brown hair who looked not a day over thirty, frowned. "Both units...?" the older man merely nodded in response. "I want you to dig up any and all information you can find on who did this. Kiri will crush whoever is responsible!" the younger of the two hissed out angrily. Yae resisted the urge to snort. _'Crush us? Please...don't make me laugh!' _rolling her eyes she forced such trivial thoughts from her mind. _'So those were Kiri operatives? I think I'll be getting a bonus for that little piece of information.' _The younger man sighed. "I will not have my fathers dealing's with Kiri jeopardized by some pesky wannabe ninja groups! I expect you to have found something by the twenty-fourth." the mans cold eyes were set upon the balding man. "Yes, I will have it done by then. Until then, sir." the older man inclined his head and turned away intending to head back the way he came. _'Oh, looks like it's time to go.' _backing away slowly Yae managed to avoid the broken glass once more before quietly escaping down the alley before she could be noticed. _'With this done I can report my findings and go home to relax! I've outdone myself today, what a relief.'_ with a small smile Yae disappeared into a crowd of people.

XxXxXxXx

_**(It's the weekend, i'm going to be doing a lot of these line breaks...unless you want me to write EVERYTHING? o0 Besides it's the weekend,nothing is really going to happen)**_

"Does Naruto really have to go aniki?" the younger boy pouted while looking at Itachi. "Yes, and I'm sure Naruto's family will want him home before dark." Itachi watched as a flash of hurt crossed the blond boys face at the word 'family'. "Yeah, I think we are having ramen tonight too!" Naruto yelled excitedly while bouncing in place. "Alright, but promise you'll come back soon?" Itachi watched his younger brother with slight interest. _'Sasuke has never taken to anyone quite so quickly. For his sake I hope father doesn't interfere.'_ The whiskered boy nodded before launching himself at Sasuke and gripping him into a tight hug. "We will see each other on Monday anyway so don't be sad Sasuke!" Sasuke nodded with a smile. "Bye Naruto!" the two dark haired boys watched as Naruto ran off down the small path to his 'home'. "Come on Sasuke we should hurry and get back before it gets any later." the two of them walked in silence and eventually made it home before the sky darkened. Walking through the front doors Itachi was greeted with a smiling face. "So you guys finally made it home, and just in time to help with dinner." Shisui, Itachi's cousin, said with a laugh. "Sasuke go wash up if you are going to help us." Itachi gently pushed the younger boy in the direction of the washroom. "OK aniki!" Sasuke exclaimed happily before disappearing from sight. "Did the boys have fun today?" Mikoto's soft voice called from within the kitchen. Rather than raising his voice Itachi walked into the kitchen before answering shortly. "Yes, they did." Itachi noted with unease, that his mothers smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "Itachi will you please help me cut these?" Mikoto asked while pointing to a small variety of unchopped vegetables. Nodding wordlessly Itachi, along with Shisui who had already begun setting the table, worked quietly fixing dinner. "Is there anything I can do?" Sasuke asked once he was out of the bathroom. "Hmm...how about you peel these potatoes for me?" he nodded enthusiastically and took the large peeler from his mothers hands and began to peel. Itachi wondered if he was the only one who felt out of place in this highly uncommon situation. The calm that seemed to engulf the household, the same one that Itachi felt was smothering him, created a family atmosphere. But to Itachi this place had never truly been one of family, and he knew that as soon as his father returned home for the night this pequiliar illusion would vanish and all would be painfully silent once more. Looking at his brothers happy smile he silently wished for his father to never again set foot in that house, to never again take that smile from his little brothers face ever again. Holding in a sigh Itachi knew that it was just wishful thinking brought upon him by the soft laughter and gentle smiles of those around him. He continued chopping the vegetables up into nearly perfectly diced pieces and waited for the inevitable arrival of his father.

Meanwhile in her own small appartment Yae was finally settling down for her own meal. "Thank kami this day is over!" with a heafty sigh she flopped into a well worn wooden chair, the only one that was in her kitchen. In front of her sat a small bowl filled to the brim with a mix of burboun chicken and a white noodled pasta. "I love prepackaged meals...no work required..." with a small sigh she picked up her chopsticks and procedded to eat. Around ten minutes later her phone began vibrating on the kitchen counter. Glaring at the phone she picked it up and flipped it open. "Yes?" her frown turned into a sigh of relief. "Next time send me a text, I was wondering if I was going to have to turn down a job." the woman on the other line gave a loud giggle making Yae cringe at the sound. "Thanks for letting me know, and you can send that to my bank account. Have a nice night." listening to the other woman for a few more seconds as her own farewells were recieved she ended the call. "Well thats was a lot more then I was expecting. There must be something big going on if information about Kiri is going for that amount." with a thoughtful sigh she leaned back into her chair. "Really, 2000? Maybe I should 'look' for more information on my own..." shaking her head with a smile she got up to clean her mess left over from dinner. Once that was done she could finally watch some TV for the first time that week, and totally and completly relax.

XxXxXxX

**(SUNDAY) **

It was around twelve thirty in the afternoon and a beautiful day outside despite the cool air; one would think that everyone would be outside enjoying themselves. At least everyone not including Sasuke or Itachi. Itachi watched his little brother pout as he looked out the window and watched the different colored leaves sway back and forth. Earlier that day, after breakfast was finished, their father had coldly told them neither of them would be allowed to do anything that day other then study. His reasoning was that they had been given an off day on Saturday so now they had to make up the time they missed studying; it was as if he thought one day missed would suddenly make them forget everything they had learned. Itachi was, not of the first time, very annoyid and disappointed with his family. His father was a little overbearing at times and completely obsessed with having _'perfect'_ offspring that would one day take over the family business. And while their mother Mikoto was sweet and gentle she held no backbone and never spoke against her husband no matter what he did. It didn't matter to them that they had already ruined one boys childhood, but to want the same thing for the younger brother was too much in Itachi's opinion. _'It's as though he only wants perfect little tools rather then sons. It doesn't matter what we want, only what he has planned for us.'_ looking back at Sasuke when the boy sighed softly Itachi inwardly promised himself to make sure his younger sibling got out of the house and enjoyed himself more, even if that meant he (Itachi) had to face their fathers wrath because of it. _'I will not let them ruin Sasuke's chance at a normal childhood. Not anymore.' _going nowhere with his own studies Itachi left the small stool he had been seated on and made his way over to Sasuke. "Do you need any help?" Sasuke looked up surprised. "Would you aniki?" Itachi allowed a smile to show on his face. "I've told you before otouto, if you need any help just ask." Sasuke scooted over from his seat on the floor to make room for his brother to sit. Brushing back a long strand of dark hair Itachi looked over Sasuke's work and quickly pointed out several errors and began to explain how to fix them. Neither boy noticed the angry narrowed eyes that were watching them from the kitchen entryway.

For other people who had only just recently woken up, the day was spent lazily waking up and enjoying the feeling of not being rushed. With a large satisfied yawn Yae was finally awake after her third cup of coffee and her sparse lunch of a ceaser salad. Stretching until her bones cracked she released a deep breath. "Nothing like having _nothing_ to do. Well at least not until tonight." she laughed quietly to herself. It was no secret to those she worked for that she was being worked to the bone and had been ready to snap. The higher ups had finally relented and given her a night as well as most of the next day off. That along with her rather hefty bonus from the Kiri information had helped recharge her batteries. Needless to say she was feeling well refreshed despite having slept in till nearly one in the afternoon. Wearing only a black bra and a pair of black pajama pants she cleaned her dishes and the small mess the salad had left in the kitchen. Sitting Indian style on her small couch Yae turned on the TV to the Game Show Network. "I love it when these people think they are so smart." shaking her head she began to watch a _'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'_ marathon. Getting lost in the absurd questions and just as equally absurd answers she lost track of time. Finally at quarter till six she glanced at the clock and swore loudly. "Fuck! I'm going to be late to the meeting if I don't get ready now..." with a groan she turned the TV off and left the warmth of the couch. After dressing herself and switching out her gold contacts for blue ones she was finally ready to get to the meeting. It was probably going to be very boring, mostly talking about what the others had found out on their perspective jobs and possible pay raises and such. But since it was required for everyone to gather once a month there was no getting out of it no matter how utterly boring it was. With one final sigh she closed her apartment door and headed off into the quickly oncoming night. It was around seven pm when she had finally left.

In another part of town the sky's that had grown increasingly darker and grayer throughout the day finally split open with a loud crack of thunder. In mere seconds the ground and anything left outside, including people, was covered in a cold, bitting downpour. A man with long white hair that some might call a mane, cursed his luck as he stalked quietly down an alleyway. Standing just outside of a run down office building he carefully picked the lock on the back door before letting himself in under the cover of a flash of lightning. The dull roar of thunder followed him into the mostly dark building and he closed the door quickly to silence it. Careful not to let his footwear make any squeaking sounds on the tiled floor he stuck to the shadows as much as he could and steered clear of the security cameras. Moving to the room his informant had said the meeting would take place in he stopped a few doors down while taking in anything that could be heard, it was not advisable to get any closer then he already was. "So what exactly are we going to do about this?" a man's deep voice boomed from the open conference room. "Well for one thing we can't let that freaky blue haired woman and her partner tell us what to do, I don't care what organization they are from!" another man yelled, sounding just as equally frustrated as the first. "But we can't just ignore them either, they could easily tear us apart, we are only a small organization after all. The Akatsuki-" another person growled. "Don't ever mention that name in here again!" the white haired man held his breath as he heard shuffling feet. "I have to get home to my wife now, please inform me of your decision regarding...well just inform me of your decision." a few murmurs were heard before the white haired man made a hasty retreat out the way he had come. Once he was out of the building and all tracks of his entry had been covered _(including him getting the hell out of that ally) _and only then, did he allow himself to think on what he had heard. "So the Akatsuki are on the move again...Tsunade will want to hear about this. I better go buy some sake..." the man scratched his head ruefully before integrating himself with the small amount of people who were traversing in the rain.

**AN: **yeah...the reason It took so long for this chapter to come out was...It's over two chapters in length!! I mean what the hell was I thinking writing this much? urg! Anyway as I said before I wanted to post this even tho my beta isn't around right now to fix all of the errors in it...she really will kill me when she sees them...most of them are just typo's too... I also know that 'Sunday' was short but none of the characters were doing anything rather interesting or useful so I only gave a few small paragraphs about it, tho I think we all know who the white haired man is. And I guess the thing on the Akatsuki was needed...so 'Sunday' wasn't a waste. And yes I know I neglected Itachi for a lot of this chapter but I needed to get Yae's 'job' out in the open and all that jazz. But don't worry I have a whole bunch of torturous things planned for poor old Itachi, curticy of Orochimaru! Hahaha!

As always REVIEW! (please! I love to hear feedback on my stories, unless all you have to say is "this sux you should stop writing" cuz that's just stupid)

(1)**Teme**- bastard

**Oto**- Sound

**Ame**- Rain

**Kiri**- Mist

**Sensei-** teacher

**Otouto-** younger brother

**Aniki**- brother

(tell me if I missed something, i'm sure I did...)

Oh and as a special treat I give you a sneak preview of chapter 4 seeing as I KNOW it will take forever to post it. Enjoy!

**CHAPTER 4 "Insanity Has It's Vices"**

Itachi sat down in Anko's economics class while glaring at anyone and everything in general though it appeared he had one specific person in mind. "Hey, what's up, you look a little...I don't know, stressed?" Kisame asked slowly. "Gummy Bears." was Itachi's reply. "Gummy Bears...?" Kisame gave Itachi a very confused look while Itachi only nodded to him. Anko who had overheard had to bite down on her cheek to keep from outright laughing. She knew exactly what Gummy bears Itachi was talking about having been on the receiving end of Yae torment before. In her freshman year she had decided to torture the teaching staff with very annoying and very catchy songs. The funniest thing ever was when Orochimaru had walked down the hall humming the 'yellow polka dot bikini' song under his breath, Anko had nearly died that time. By the third day half the teachers were begging Yae to stop, but she had continued for the entire week nearly driving everyone insane. As Anko watched the dark haired boy she wondered how long it would be before he snapped or if he would make it the entire week.


	4. HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!

**DISCLAIMER: I do not, nor will I ever own, Naruto! (Or the movie 'the thing' but w/e)**

**AN:** OK, since you have all been waiting rather patiently while I get my act together to write chapter 4 (which I only have 3,000 words, out of a predicted 20,000, done.) I decided to give you a special Halloween treat. Since the actual fic takes place AFTER Halloween (around mid November or so) This small chapter is obviously BEFORE Yae met Itachi and so on. Also since my beta is still gone this chapter is unedited for the most part (I mean I went over it and all but we all know I miss a lot of things)

**HALLOWEEN SPECIAL**- **"****Shrunken Mushrooms****"**

October thirty-first, or Halloween. A day where kids dressed up in scary costumes and paraded themselves around for mountains of candy. Yae hated that day. Well not really 'hated' more like seriously disliked. It wasn't anything against the candy, decorations or the small amount of good costumes. _(because seriously, most things people wore were just not very well thought out and looked horrendous)_ No, the problem lied with the kids themselves. Noisy, whiny and demanding. Walking up to peoples houses with fluttery hearts and fake cheer and completely unappreciative of free candy. _(honestly how many times had she heard children complain as they walked away, all because they didn't get the candy they 'liked') _Although somehow every year her apartment complex decided that everyone would hand out candy _(granted they got $30 off of their rent if they did, but that didn't mean she had to like it)_ and every year all she ended up wanting to do was go to sleep while watching horror movies in peace. But no, instead she had to cater to demons, princesses and batman costumes. She really wanted to move out.

After a long day at school, and a short meeting for _'work'_, Yae was tired by the time she finally got into her apartment. At five o'clock. Just in time to set up candy for the little **leeches** that would no doubt be arriving soon. Now normally one would think that parents wouldn't take their children up a few flights of stairs to get candy, however, most of the children came from either the same apartment complex or a neighboring one; and there were very few normal homes that were close by. It was times like those that she cursed her own luck. Leaving her lights off she threw her school bag to the floor, kicked off her shoes and made her way into her bathroom. Shrugging off her hoodie she exposed the black t-shirt with fake blood spatters she had on underneath it. Flipping the switch on the wall, light flooded the small bathroom and she sighed. Turning the faucet onto the hot water she let it run a few seconds before splashing her face. Hot water was the only way to get any of her makeup off. _(and the only reason she wore the white makeup and coal around her eyes was to make people ignore her, because people tend to not notice those they don't deem as 'normal') _

Her face still dripping, she popped out one of her gold contacts leaving one of her eyes gold and the other their natural color. *Ding-dong* Groaning as she heard the doorbell, and silently wishing she hadn't left her font light on, she shouted at them to wait a moment. Walking out of the bathroom calmly and into the kitchen to grab the pre made bowl of candy_ (really, she was glad she had mixed it in the morning rather then waiting until later) _she trudged to her front door and opened it. "Trick or T-Ahhh!" Now just because she wasn't very fond of the holiday _(that wasn't really a holiday since they didn't get a day off from school...) _it didn't mean she didn't know what the kids were 'supposed' to say. And she knew for a fact that 'Ahhh!' wasn't part of it. And neither was the kids running away before grabbing their candy. Shrugging her shoulder and shutting her door, she left the bowl on the counter by the door. If anything, she had bought her favorite kinds of candy so that if there was anything left over, she could eat it herself. And if the kids running away like that happened a few more times she would have more then half of a bowl all to herself.

Shaking her head at kids these days _(because she was 'so' much older then they were)_ she went back into the bathroom to finish removing her makeup and contacts. And that was when it hit her like a lead balloon, THAT was why they screamed. Looking into the mirror she smirked. Her face was still covered in white but the coal around her eyes had dripped down her face leaving dark, almost blood like streaks, on both her cheeks. Never mind the fact that her eyes were two different colors, one of them being an eerie gold. Her hair framed her face in such a way_ (along with her choice in clothing) _that it made her look like some horror movie reject. "Now that I think of it, I think the lights are still off in the rest of the house." snickering softly she wondered if she should just leave herself like that and see how many kids she could scare. Finally deciding that it was too much work she finished cleaning herself up before turning on the TV and playing horror movies while everyone and a while catering to the costumed children. _**'Perhaps,'**_ she thought **'this Halloween wasn't too bad, I did get to scare someone.'** with a smirk she turned back to the movie _'The Thing' _before gradually falling asleep.

**-END PART 1-**

It was already quarter past five o'clock in the evening and the sky was steadily darkening on that Friday evening. All around the neighborhood wizards, pumpkins and dragons were slowly creeping out form their warm homes in hopes of snatching handfuls of delicious candy. As the sky darkened the wind picked up and set the temperature far below that of a comfortable level. Yet still, the children dragged their parents out into this weather for special treats on that one day a year, Halloween. All except one, a little dark haired boy who was sitting by the window sill looking out into the night. With a sigh he rubbed his nose wearily before turning back to the supplies set before him.

He wasn't allowed to go outside during Halloween, and this year was no different. (Never mind the fact that he was sick) His father said that dressing up and begging for candy was beneath him when he could just go out and buy it for himself. They were not allowed to decorate the house either, since spending money on such things was 'frivolous'. Stretched before the boy were large pieces of white, black and orange paper; various boxes of colored pencils, crayons and even markers as well as a pair of scissors. He had been working since three that afternoon and was nearly finished. A soft voice startled him just as he was about to grab the scissors. "What are you doing Otouto?" turning abruptly he stared at his older brother. "Making decorations..." cringing he hoped he wouldn't get into trouble for doing this, it wasn't like he was spending any money on them. "Decorations?" the older boy repeated. Nodding slightly he held up the black paper with the white outline of a cat. "For tonight..." he clearly saw surprise in the dark orbs staring at him. A small smile spread across and he instantly knew he wasn't in trouble. He watched silently as his brother took the scissors and the black paper and cut out the cat.

"You should have asked me to help you Sasuke." smiling he looked up. "I will next year Aniki." He still wished he could go outside like all the other kids; they all looked like they had so much fun dressing up and getting candy. "Sasuke, I have a surprise for you." he looked back to his brother with excitement in his small eyes. "What is it?" Itachi held out his closed fists and Sasuke knew from experience that even if he guessed the wrong hand he would still get his surprise. But it was still fun to guess. Scrunching up his nose he quickly chose the left hand and with a happy shriek a piece of candy was reviled. "I have more in my room if you want it later, but only after diner." grabbing the candy he flung his arms around his brother. "Thank you Aniki!" Even if he didn't get to go outside his brother always seemed to make him happy. "Let's go hang those up." Itachi pointed to the cat and previously cut out ghost. Nodding franticly he grabbed the cut outs and pulled his brother from the room. Yes, this Halloween was definitely better then previous years.

**-END PART 2- **

**AN**: ok I really just had to make a random ass title, it's for Halloween so get over it.....hehehe. And isn't little Sasuke adorable? (Not in later years but what can you do?) PLEASE review, I want to know what you think. I have over 200 hits on this and yet only three reviews (ignoring those that are from my beta) so I know you people are reading this! *cries* I need reviews to puff up my ego! Anyway....please review!!!!!!! Oh and before I forget HAPPY F'N HALLOWEEN!!!!!!


	5. AN and Chapter 4

AN 12/25/08: OK I had originally planned on taking a break from this until Christmas was done, however I feel that my break on this needs to extend a little longer, but I'm not sure how long. I would like to state that I WILL not ABANDON THIS FIC! I have already put too much time and effort into this to just scrap it, but that doesn't mean i will be back within only the next few weeks. I may leave it alone for a year or more like i did with "Things Were As They Have Always Been" before i finally continue and finish it. I will however be working on my own book as well as new projects on my fictionpress account (Alexhliel). So, for now I will release what I had previously written of chapter 4 as a little holiday treat. (I may or may not release the Christmas and New Years pieces I have written for this, if I do they will only be up until that part in the fic comes out then I would take them down) Thanks for reading this and enjoy this small piece.

CHAPTER 4 "Insanity Has It's Vices"

Monday morning was filled with bright sunlight and chilly air, as was becoming normal for the season. With barely a month left before exams, Christmas and New Years the threat of snow was heavy on most peoples minds. Most. "Damn it I'm going to be late again!" Yae cursed her late night meeting venamintley while throwing on random clothes she found floating around her room. Hopping down the hallway with a fruit roll-up in her mouth while pulling a sock on she managed not to slip. "This can not become a habit..." still muttering curses under her breath she reached the kitchen where she ate the rest of her 'breakfast' and threw out the wrapper before she could accidentally eat that to. Grabbing her keys and pocketing that along with her cellphone she happened to glance over at the counter top. Sitting innocently on it was a CD entitled _'Hell Week'. _Blinking in surprise her eyes narrowed and her lips curved into an evil smile. "It is about time I do that isn't it?" carefully placing the CD in her school bag, after putting on a pair of black shoes, she hastily made her way from her apartment. "At least I can run properly today since nothing hurts anymore." leaving her hood down and securing her bag she broke into a run the second her feet stepped off of the stairs leading form her apartment.

Itachi was sitting patiently in first period while waiting for Yae to show up. It seemed to him that she was going to make it a habit of being almost late. Although it was slightly amusing to watch the glee in Orochimaru's eyes get trampled every time she made it to class. This day was apparently not going to be any different. Orochimaru seemed to be counting down to the second when the bell was going to ring, and just as the bell rang Yae came skidding into class, literally. She came running into class at full speed and had to skid to a stop or crash into Orochimaru's desk. And while that would have been entertaining Itachi was sure neither Yae nor Orochimaru would have appreciated it very much. Smirking at Orochimaru who openly glared at his student, Yae walked happily to the back of the room to sit by Itachi. "I had a work meeting that ran late last night so I forgot to set my alarm." Itachi remained silent but the small sigh he released said it all. As Orochimaru began to drone on and on about Physics, Yae decided to put her plan into action. As she was pulling out her CD player she was trying so hard not to smile or burst into laughter, if she did that then Itachi would be instantly suspicious of her intentions. Smiling she handed him an ear piece before pushing play. As the song began to play she watched him give her a look equivalent to _'what the fuck?'_. Suppressing her laughter she raised an eyebrow at him before forcing herself to look away. Moving her head slightly to the music she made sure that song was also the last one Itachi heard before she turned it off. And for added amusement she started humming it once the CD player was put away. "What was that first song?" Itachi's left eye twitched violently as he asked this. "The Gummy Bear Song. Why?" Yae replied innocently. Noticing it was only a minute before the bell would ring Yae replaced her bag on her shoulder and started softly singing while tapping her hand on the desk. "Yes I'm a gummy bear, oh I'm a yummy jummy funny lucky gummy bear..." Itachi shifted slightly in his seat making her loose all feelings of possible guilt. After all, torturing someone with songs could be very, very amusing. For Itachi the end of the period had never seemed so far away. When the bell did finally ring Yae smiled again and took off out of the room but Itachi got the feeling that he was part of some joke. Walking out of class and down the hall, Itachi was wondering what exactly had prompted Yae to try to annoy him with such a ridiculous song. While weaving around the other students Itachi began to absently hum under his breath and before he even realized what he was doing the words to the _'Gummy Bear Song' _touched his lips.

Itachi sat down in Anko's economics class while glaring at anyone and everything in general though it appeared he had one specific person in mind. "Hey, what's up, you look a little...I don't know, stressed?" Kisame asked slowly. "Gummy Bears." was Itachi's reply. "Gummy Bears...?" Kisame gave Itachi a very confused look while Itachi only nodded to him. Anko who had overheard had to bite down on her cheek to keep from outright laughing. She knew exactly what Gummy bears Itachi was talking about having been on the receiving end of Yae's torment before. In her freshman year she had decided to torture the teaching staff with very annoying and very catchy songs. The funniest thing ever was when Orochimaru had walked down the hall humming the _'yellow polka dot bikini' _song under his breath, Anko had nearly died that time. That was also one of the reasons Orochimaru hated her. By the third day half the teachers were begging Yae to stop, but she had continued for the entire week nearly driving everyone insane. As Anko watched the dark haired boy she wondered how long it would be before he snapped or if he would make it through the entire week.

**XxXx**

The moment that Yae walked into his class Jiraiya knew something was up. Or rather, Yae was up to 'something'. Quietly making his way over to his temperamental student he silently observed her. "Yo, Ero-sensei!" she smiled widely looking awake and alert. "What are you doing?" the white haired man asked while narrowing his eyes suspiciously. There was something eerily familiar about the way she smiled that just screamed 'danger' to Jiraiya. "Doing? Why I'm not 'doing' anything." she blinked innocently but he wasn't fooled. "Cut the crap Yae." by now most of the class had filtered in and were noisily doing something art related while talking to each other effectively hiding their conversation. Yae's grin could now be compared to that of the Cheshire cat's. "Oh, nothing much really. Just having some fun with music." Jiraiya backed away slowly. "The last time you had 'fun' with 'music' you damn well nearly drove all of us insane!" Yae laughed, a soft almost breathless sound. "Don't worry, I'm leaving you teachers and most students out of it." Kakuzu who has sat down about halfway into the conversation looked relieved as did Jiraiya. "Then who's brain are you trying to turn to mush?"Jiraiya still looked wearily at her as if he expected her to start singing or humming something. "Itachi." she stated in a matter-of-fact way. Kakuzu blinked. "Did I hear you right?" rolling her eyes skyward Yae nodded her head while retrieving her sketchpad from her bag. "Not that you should even be sitting here with me, but yes you heard correctly." Jiraiya's deep laughter filled the classroom making most students pause in their work. "This might actually be worth watching. Itachi huh? You have guts trying to do that to him. But I suppose if you can get Orochimaru to crack then an Uchiha shouldn't be too hard for you." shaking his head while still laughing he walked off to grab his coffee; leaving Yae and Kakuzu alone at the table. "What exactly is your reason for hanging around the Uchiha?" Kakuzu's sharp, calculating eyes stared into Yae's own gold ones. "What is your interest in _'The Uchiha'_?" she countered while masking her outward emotions, something she had learned to do early on. Staying silent for a moment Kakuzu got up suddenly and walked away. "Well if I knew that asking him questions about Itachi would get him to leave I would have done it all last week..." smirking to herself Yae began to think of how Iruka and Kakashi-sensei's outdoors project would really help in her plan to make Itachi her next music inspired victim. She knew she was playing with fire, but what's the fun in anything without a little danger?

**XxXx**

Itachi was about to grab a hold of the door handle of the building when someone yelled his name. Turning he spotted Yae running over to him, her face barely hidden by her black hood. "Our classes are meeting outside today..." she breathed out leaving herself slightly breathless. "Iruka decided to make me post the notice on the door since I came to class early today." Itachi watched silently as Yae used a roll of tape to stick a bright green note over the doors clear glass. _('For all students in class periods 3-6 please meet outside today and tomorrow for your projects. Mr. Umino & Mr. Hatake')_ Smiling brightly at Itachi Yae stepped away from the door. "Well, shall we get going?" she questioned. Nodding his head once Itachi turned but was stopped by a soft hand on his forearm. "Oh, by the way Itachi. 'Yes I'm a gummy bear." Seeing Itachi's eye twitch she laughed and started to jog to the class meeting area. Inwardly Itachi pushed his annoyance aside and followed her at a much more sedate pace. _'I should kill her for making me listen to that stupid song. It is going to be stuck in my head all day without her 'help.' _he thought sourly. Iruka smiled brightly at Itachi when he finally showed up. "I'm sure you and Yae want to get your pictures done so you can laze around afterwards, here." Iruka said while holding out a camera to Itachi. Silently taking the camera and inclining his head in thanks he walked over to Yae, who stood a few feet away from him, trying not to laugh. "We only have a few more pictures left to take, I don't have any idea why Iruka-sensei is giving us three days outside. There really isn't much to take pictures of..." Yae trailed off as she wound her camera, setting it up for the next photo. A strong breeze brought frigid air with it making chills runs along Itachi's spine. _'It really is getting cold out, I suppose I will have to start bringing a jacket with me from now on.' _Following Yae as she dragged him off to take pictures, Itachi took in the changes the school was undergoing. The smaller trees on the grounds had already dropped most of their multi colored leaves leaving the branches bare and ugly; while the larger trees still had a fair amount of their leaves and even many still green leaves. Small prickly bushes had turned a darker green and had begun loosing some of their sharp needle like leaves. And while the grass was still green, the ground underneath it was hardening and Itachi knew that all too soon it would be turning various shades of brown as it died during the winter months. "Itachi, take a picture of that window over there. It should count, right?" looking over to where Yae was pointing he saw what one could assume was a math classrooms window covered in different geometric shapes of various colors. "Hn." he replied quietly. Yae smacked him in the arm. "Don't start that again. Speak!" nearly glaring at her he ignored her comment and snapped a picture of the window. Iruka said they could take a picture of anything dealing with mathematics that was outside. Technically that was 'outside'.

"Did you write Kakashi-sensei's dream assignment for today?" Yae asked while leading him off to presumably take more pictures. "Yes." she smiled widely at him before a look of annoyance flashed across her face. "I did too, but its not like I really 'remember' what it is I dream, or that I can actually write what I dream half the time. My imagination is going dry trying to come up with fake dreams for the onces I can't put down." Itachi understood that all too well. Sometimes, even if he did dream, they were either to jumbled to make sense of them, or not something one would want a teacher reading. After taking a few more pictures Yae looked at her phone and cursed. "Damn! We need to head back now it's almost the end of fourth already! It's a good thing Iruka-sensei didn't expect us back before now." walking briskly back to the meeting place for those classes they were met with an annoyed looking Iruka and an apologetic looking Kakashi. "Wonder what ero-sensei did to piss Iruka off?" cautiously walking over to the two teachers Yae and Itachi handed in their cameras and were given a hundred for the day as soon as Iruka noted the amount of pictured they had. "Well you two certainly don't need another day outside for this project, I guess you both will find something to amuse yourselves with tomorrow." Iruka's smile dropped slightly at the evil gleam in Yae's eyes. That was either bad for the teachers or bad for Itachi. And from the looks of that smile Iruka hoped it wasn't the teachers. The last time she had smiled like that _(anywhere Iruka)_ was when she had gotten most of the staff in various degrees of insanity from making them listen to catchy songs. Iruka shivered as he remembered having _'Lovely Bunch of Coconuts'_ stuck in his head. "I think you should be handing in your work to Mr. Hatake as well." Kakashi winced at the way Iruka said his name. Raising an eyebrow at his two teachers Itachi complied. "So sensei," Yae said while looking at Kakashi, "what exactly will we be doing in our class with these pictures?" Yae watched calmly while Iruka fixed a rather nasty glare on Kakashi. "Um...well I thought I would keep it a secret until all the pictures were developed..." he laughed lightly and inched away from Iruka. "So, in other words, you have no idea? Ok then." Yae shrugged and held up her dream assignment that Kakashi quickly took while giving a look that clearly said _'help me'_. "Bye sensei's." Yae smirked cheerfully while pulling Itachi with her. "You told me you already had your lesson planned out for this! How could-" Yae snickered softly as Iruka's voice rose in volume. "You do realize that once he escapes he will get you back for that?" the smirk Yae gave him stated otherwise. "Perhaps...or perhaps not. So where are we eating lunch today?" Itachi glanced towards the large tree that they had eaten under the day before. "That's fine with me. We might as well eat outside as much as we can since I'm sure we won't want to once it gets colder and the snow gets here."

Sitting underneath the largest tree in the courtyard they pulled out their lunches; neither of them bothering to wait the last three minutes of class. For the first fifteen minutes after the bell had rang it was a peaceful silence. That was until Yae began humming. Itachi's hand stopped inches from his face and the bit of rice held by the chopsticks fell back into its container. His left eye twitched. At first the humming hadn't even been noticeable, but it soon became hard to ignore as it increased in volume. _'Why is she purposely humming that infernal song?'_ It was not hard to figure out that she was doing this all on purpose, however 'why' was she doing it? Glaring at her now that the song was once again in the front of his mind, Itachi began putting away his meal. "What's wrong Itachi?" Yae questioned innocently. Ignoring her he missed the devilish smirk that fell across her lips. "Stop humming." from the tone of Itachi's voice she was sure that it wasn't a request, more of an order, to stop humming. Inwardly dancing Yae stopped humming, for the time being anyway. Taking one last bite of her cold meal she packed her things up as Itachi had just done. _'Things are certainly going according to plan...just wait until tomorrow Itachi, just wait.' _forcing back a smirk she thought of how to pull other people into her scheme without them actually knowing they were helping her. Itachi eyed her wearily while noticing her lip quirk upwards for a moment before going slack again. While she was an entertaining person, Yae was also very dangerous. Having the ability to keep your enemies, and even friends, guessing your plans was very useful. But it also left your intentions in the dark. Feeling a headache coming on he looked away, leaning against the rough bark of the tree. Frowning, his thoughts once again centered around that 'song'.

**XxXxXx**

When Itachi had finally escaped Yae _(after a very 'long' lunch)_ he couldn't stop thinking about that song. He was however, going to use the period away from her to get it out of his mind. Perhaps this was why he had never bothered with people his own age before, they were to troublesome. That and half of them weren't all that smart. The fact that Tobi had just nearly had his hand blown off by Deidara's exploding clay proved that. While the class was trying on his patience at times, it was at least not completely aggravating. They were allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted as long as it had to do with art. If his other classes would pick up pointers from his class things in school would go a lot smoother, and be by far less boring and unstimulating. The entire fifth period passed just like the others had; a few gruff words from their teacher, exploding clay, and the people at his table ignoring him and generally acting like idiots. By the time the bell had rang Itachi had completely forgotten about Yae and her attempt to annoy him with a song. The air outside had dropped by a few more degrees and a light wind was blowing making it feel even cooler. It wasn't until he had nearly reached the gymnasium doors that he spotted long black hair and a pair of gold eyes. "Hurry up I'm cold!" Itachi was tempted to slow down and take his time if it weren't for the fact that he himself was bothered by the cold.

Walking into the gymnasium both of them immediately noticed something strange was amiss. Normally on a Monday _(as Yae had explained)_ Gai would have the students working on one form of cardio or another, today however was different. The lights were mostly dimmed and chairs, as well as the projector, were out in the middle of the spacious room. "What the...why do I smell smoke?" Yae grumbled quietly; weather Itachi had noticed the smoke or not remained a mystery. "Where is Gai-sensei?!" Yae winced at the voice that floated across the room. "I really should have watched myself before speaking in another language around Lee..." walking calmly over to the darker parts of the room they were met with a teary eyed Lee and a rather harassed looking man who was smoking. "Look I already told you, I don't know where he is at the moment or when he will be back, I'm just your substitute for today and tomorrow..." the smoking man slowly backed away from Lee with his hands up as though he were trying not to startle a rabid animal. "Asuma-sensei? Why the fuck are you smoking indoors!?" Yae groused while not so innocently glaring at the substitute. "Sakamotto? Damn of all the classes..." with a heavy sigh he stubbed out his cigarette while his fingers played with a silver cased lighter. "You are worse then any of the other students when it comes to smoking, and I just had to get stuck with you for two, possibly more, days." he sighed again before scratching his head and walking away. "That could be because I'm allergic to smoke! Damn irritating lazy, no good-" with a few more choice words Yae finished her rant before looking towards Itachi who looked amused about the whole thing. "What?" Itachi ignored her and took a seat in the far back and on the aisle. In the front of the room Lee looked dejected and was pouting for the most part. Shaking her head at his pitiful sight _(like a puppy who lost his master)_ she claimed the spot to the left of Itachi before dumping her possessions to the floor. "Alright now that everyone is seated, I'm going to explain a few things and I only plan on saying it once so listen up. I am going to be your substitute for this class for the next few days." murmurs broke out making Yae roll her eyes. _'Like we haven't had a sub before, kami these people irritate me sometimes.' _

"I'm Asuma Sarutobi, and no I don't know when Gai is coming back. You will be doing overheads for the time that he is away with the exception of Wednesday which will be swimming." Yae had to cover a smile with her hand as Itachi frowned at the mention of swimming. But she decided that if she was forced to swim with tons of people gawking at her constantly she might be inclined to frown as well. In the end she was happy it was Itachi's problem and not her own. "Todays overhead will be about your bodies upper muscles, or something like that..." Itachi, who had just begun to tune Asuma out, was interrupted by a soft tapping sound. Glancing over he watched as Yae absently tapped her painted nails on the desk. That however, wasn't the problem. The problem was 'what' she was tapping. Keeping her features blank Yae continued to tap the gummy bear song. No matter how strong he was, she would break him or die trying. _(insert dramatic music here) _No one was able to resist the entire week of lyrical torture the last time she had done it, and she had included all of the teachers she knew and most of the students as well. Perhaps she could even get his younger brother to help since she was sure to see him when she went over to work on their project that week. With that in mind she began tapping just a little louder then before. With her thoughts slipping away, and her fingers unconscionably keeping the rhythm going, Yae almost missed the bell ring. _'I'm surprised he didn't interrupt me, unless he has found a way to ignore me? Well that wont do, I'll just have to come up with better ways to torture him!' _With the usual rush to make it to class (_before Tsunade gave them detention)_ they didn't have much time to talk. With a sigh Yae slide into her chair, tired but not breathless. For a few minutes everything was silent _(as silent as a classroom full of teenagers can be)_ before Tsunade stood up with a smirk on her face. "Alright, everyone sit next to your partners and then I will explain the next project." There was a rush as people fumbled with their things and moved around the classroom noisily. When everything was settled Tsunade walked around her desk and stood in front of her class.

"For everyone who has a partner right now congratulations, you are now a married couple." the entire room was sent into a state of shock. "What the fuck does that mean?!" Hidan as he jumped from his chair. "It means that for the duration of this project, you and your 'partner' _(Tsunade snickered while looking at Hidan and Kakuzu who, miraculously, ended up as the only same sex couple in the classroom) _are married. As in husband and wife, or in your case husband and husband." a few of the students looked ready to faint while other breathed a heavy sigh. "Wow, I moved up from 'girlfriend' to 'spouse' in the span of two days. I'm awesome." Yae commented with a smirk. Itachi rolled his eyes and silently promised to torture Sasuke for calling Yae his girlfriend. "So what exactly are we doing in this 'marriage' Tsunade-sensei?" Yae being the only one not freaking out and willing to actually speak up, asked. "Well it's actually really simple though I have no doubt some of you will get it all wrong. _(She pointedly looked at Hidan who growled back at her)_ Basically you have to search the papers and find jobs for the both of you, as well as a home, cars, groceries and other things you deem as necessities and make a working budget out of it. You can't have a new luxurious house on the coast of Spain and not be able to pay for it." Tsunade smirked while some of the students squirmed. "That is easy, how long are we doing this for again?" Yae asked from her reclining position in the chair. "Well I was originally going to make this a very long and torturous project for everyone..." Tsunade trailed off while most of the students groaned. "But seeing as my staff decided to add a few extra days to the Christmas holidays the project will only last for three weeks, starting from today. We will not work on this in class so make sure you and your partner get all of the arrangements made to complete this. Also, when I say you have only three weeks for this I mean it. It is due three weeks from today, not three weeks and two days after. Any longer and you will have to wait until after the holidays to hand it in; and I can tell you right now that you will NOT like your grade if you do that." leaving her students to absorb the information Tsunade walked back around her desk, sat down in her chair and watched her class silently. Most students were groaning and or complaining about the project rather then using the time to make arrangements. Most students. Although Hidan was complaining rather loudly with swears he was making plans with Kakuzu. Tsunade's sharp eyes wandered around the room before settling on a rather odd partnership. Itachi Uchiha and Yae Sakamotto. If someone had told her that those two would actually become friends, and glued to the hip as it were, she would have told them to get their head examined. But there she was watching them converse easily _(and not waste the generously given class time_). Shaking her head Tsunade desperately wanted her liquor.

"Well then, my husband, when shall we meet to do this? Or should we split the time equally between this and the art fair project when I come over?" watching the amusement in Itachi's eyes fade away as he thought Yae waited patiently. "I think that for this visit we should split the time." nodding her agreement she listened as Itachi explained that they would be taken to his house by his cousin that day so she didn't need to worry about getting there this time. "Well thats good since I don't have a car!" with a laugh she stretched her arms above her head just as a loud yell came from across the room. "What?! I am not the woman!" a few giggles blotted out Hidan's outraged voice as the class zeroed in on his and kakuzu's conversation. "Well I most certainly am not the bottom of this relationship, so that leaves you to fill that spot." kakuzu said calmly all the while looking extremly amused with himself. "You take that back you fucking bastard! I am not bottoming. And if I ever fucking did it would never be with you!" realising a second too late that his voice was far to loud Hidan looked slightly embarased when most students around him burst into laughter. "Kakuzu you bastard you did that on purpose!" he hissed. "Alright, I gave you far too much time to talk things over. So for the rest of the period I want silence." Tsunade yelled from the front. "And Kakuzu and Hidan, please keep your bedroom issues out of the classroom." she added as an afterthought. Yae laughed quietly as Hidans face was tinged with pink. "Sometimes I think school is actually enjoyable."

AN: that is all i have written so far for this.


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